Ariodante Totally Explained

Everything about Ariodante totally explained

For the opera by Étienne Méhul, see Ariodant. Ariodante (HWV 33) is an opera seria in three acts by Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Each act contains opportunities for dance, originally composed for dancer Marie Sallé and her company.
   The opera was first performed in the Covent Garden Theatre, London, on 8 January 1735. Ariodante opened Handel's first season at Covent Garden and successfully competed against the rival Opera of the Nobility, supported by the Prince of Wales. Handel had the tacit and financial support of the King and Queen and, more vocally, of the Princess Royal. The opera received 11 performances during its premiere season at Covent Garden.
   Like Handel's other works in the opera seria genre, Ariodante, despite its initial success, fell into oblivion for more than two hundred years. An edition of the score was published in the early 1960s, from the Hallische Händel Ausgabe. In the 1970s, the work began to be revived, and has come to be considered one of Handel's finest operas.
   Charles Cudworth has discussd the influence of French dance music in the opera. Winton Dean has noted that Act II of the opera, in its original version, is the only act in a Handel opera which ends with accompanied recitative.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, January 8, 1735 (Conductor: - )
Ariodante, a vassal prince	mezzo-soprano	Giovanni Carestini
Ginevra, daughter of the King of Scotland, betrothed to Ariodante	soprano	Anna Maria Strada del Pò
Dalinda, attendant on Ginevra, secretly in love with Polinesso	soprano
Polinesso, Duke of Albany	alto	Maria Caterina Negri
Lucarnio, Ariodante's brother	tenor	John Beard
King of Scotland	bass
Odoardo, favorite of the king	tenor

Synopsis

Ginevra, daughter of the King of Scotland, is betrothed to Ariodante. Polinesso, a jealous rival of Ariodante, wins the confidence of Ginevra's friend Dalinda. With Dalinda's unwitting help, Polinesso tricks Ariodante into thinking that Ginevra is his lover.
The King, hearing of Ginevra’s alleged infidelity, disowns her, while Ariodante is reported dead by suicide. Polinesso then sends his agents to kill Dalinda, as the only witness to his plot. But Ariodante, having met Dalinda while wandering in the woods, drives off the would-be assassins.
Polinesso, seeking to win the King’s favour, now offers to defend the honour of Ginevra in a tournament. In the combat, he's mortally wounded by Ariodante’s vengeful brother Lurcanio. Ariodante, having learned about Polinesso’s plot from Dalinda, now appears and offers himself as Ginevra’s champion. The dying Polinesso confesses his guilt and Ginevra is pardoned by the King.

Selected recordings

Philips 6769 025: Janet Baker, Edith Mathis, Norma Burrowes, Samuel Ramey, David Rendall, James Bowman, Alexander Oliver; London Voices; English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard, conductor
Deutsche Grammophon 457 271-2: Anne Sofie von Otter, Lynne Dawson, Veronica Cangemi, Ewa Podles, Richard Croft, Denis Sedov, Luc Coadou; Chorus of Les Musiciens du Louvre; Les Musiciens du Louvre; Marc Minkowski, conductor

E-book

Score

of Ariodante (ed. Friedrich Chrysander, Leipzig 1881)

Further Information

Get more info on 'Ariodante'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://ariodante.totallyexplained.com">Ariodante Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.