Amadigi di Gaula: Difference between revisions

Template:Handel operasAmadigi di Gaula (HWV 11) is a magical opera in three acts, with music by George Frideric Handel. It was the fifth Italian opera that Handel wrote for London and was composed during his stay at Burlington House in 1715. The most intimate of Handel's operas, written for a small cast, is based on Amadis de Grèce, a French tragédie-lyrique by André Cardinal Destouches and Antoine Houdar de la Motte.

The opera, one of Handel's most concise stage works, received its first performance in London at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket on 25 May 1715. Handel made prominent use of wind instruments, so the score is unusually colorful, and at points resembles the Water Music, which he composed only a few years later. An exceptional care was lavished to the production. Amadigi employs no voices lower than alto and it ends in a minor key. The opera was a success because of the visual side and received a known minimum of 17 further performances in London through 1717.

The identity of the librettist is not known for certain.^[1][2] Previous consensus had been that John Jacob Heidegger, who signed the dedication to Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington was the author, but more recent research has indicated that the librettist was more likely to be Giacomo Rossi, with Nicola Francesco Haym as a more probable candidate.^[3] This libretto is an adaptation of a medieval Spanish knight-errantry epic Amadis de Gaula in which the King of Gaul educated in Scotland, falls in love with and eventually marries Oriana, daughter of the King of England. David Kimbell compared in detail the treatments of the story by Handel and Destouches.^[4]

What Handel did interest was the emotions and the sufferings of the four characters.^[5] The sole preoccupation of each of the protagonists is to make the others fall in or out of love with them. Handel went deeper into their sentiments than he ever would again.^[6]

According to Winton Dean the quality of the score, especially the first two acts, is remarkably high, but it shows less careful organization than most of the later operas. He also states that the tonal design seems off balance. The conception of an opera as a coherent structural organism was slow to capture Handel's imagination.^[7]

The original manuscript of Amadigi has disappeared, along with ballet sections in the music. Only one edition of the libretto is known, dating from 1715. Two published editions of the opera exist, the Händelgesellschaft edition of 1874, and the first critical edition, by J. Merrill Knapp, which Bärenreiter published in 1971.^[2] Dean has examined the history of various manuscripts which contain alternative selections for the score.^[8]

Hamburg saw 17 performances from 1717–1720, but with a different title, Oriana.^[2] The opera then fell into neglect and was not revived until 1929 in Osnabrück and subsequently in England in 1968, by Unicorn Opera at the Abbey Hall, Abingdon.^[9]

The opera received its North American premiere in July 2011 at Central City Opera in Central City, Colorado.

Amadis of Gaul is among prose, what Orlando Furioso is among metrical romances, not the oldest of its kind, but the best. The pastoral romance was written towards the close of the fourteenth century. The work has a complicated history.^[11] Like any romance of chivalry, Amadís de Gaula is a nightmare to summarise owing to its length, numerous characters and complicated subplots. The action seems, from the names of characters and places, to be set primarily in England, and it is supposed that the name "Gaula" is related to "Wales".^[12] Oriana was heiress to the throne of Great Britain.^{[citation needed]} Amadis of Gaul is a prince of Wales, born of a secret amour, educated in Scotland, reared as a knight, and serving devotedly the fair English princess Oriana. For her sake he contends against monsters and en chantments, defends her father's kingdom from an oppressor. The plot ranges across the continent to Romania and Constantinople, and in the continuations as far as the Holy Land and the Cyclades. However, the romance's geography cannot be mapped onto the "real" Europe: it contains just as many fantastic places as real ones. When the Spaniards first saw Mexico, they said to each other it was like the places of enchantment which were spoken of in the book of Amadis. This was in 1549.^[13] California and Patagonia got their names from a sequel to Amadis of Gaul.^[14]

Amadigi, a Paladin, and Dardano, the Prince of Thrace, are both enamoured of Oriana, the daughter of the King of the Fortunate Isles. Oriana prefers Amadigi in her affections. Also attracted to Amadigi is the sorceress Melissa, who tries to capture Amadigi's affections by various spells, pleadings and even threats. Amadigi confronts various spirits and furies, but rebuffs them at practically every turn. One particular vision at the "Fountain of True Love", however, of Oriana courting Dardano upsets Amadigi to the point that he faints. Oriana sees Amadigi prostrate, and is about to stab herself with his sword when he awakens. He immediately berates her for her apparent betrayal of him, and in his turn tries to stab himself.

Still alive, Amadigi continues to resist the advances of Melissa. Melissa then makes Dardano look like Amadigi, to deceive Oriana. Oriana follows Dardano, in the visage of Amadigi, to beg his pardon. Dardano exults in the attention of Oriana, and in an impulsive moment, challenges Amadigi to single combat. In the duel, Amadigi kills Dardano. Melissa accuses Oriana of stealing Amadigi from her, and calls upon dark spirits to assault Oriana, who resists all of Melissa's incantations.

Act 3 finds Amadigi and Oriana imprisoned by Melissa. The two lovers are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. Though desiring of revenge, Melissa cannot quite yet kill Amadigi, but torments him by prolonging his confinement in chains. Amadigi and Oriana ask Melissa for mercy. Melissa summons the ghost of Dardano to assist her in her revenge, but the ghost says that the gods are predisposed to protect Amadigi and Oriana, and that their trials are nearly done. Rejected on all levels, by the gods, the underworld spirits and Amadigi, Melissa takes her own life, with one final plea to Amadigi to feel a shade of pity for her. In the manner of a deus ex machina, Orgando, uncle of Oriana and a sorcerer himself, descends from the sky in a chariot and blesses the union of Amadigi and Oriana. A dance of shepherds and shepherdesses concludes the opera.

• Erato 2252 454902: Nathalie Stutzmann, Bernarda Fink, Eiddwhen Harrhy, Jennifer Smith; Les Musiciens du Louvre; Marc Minkowski, conductor^[15][16]
• Naïve AM 133: Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Elena de la Merced, Sharon Rostorf-Zamir, Jordi Domènech; Al Ayre Español; Eduardo Lopez Banzo. Release Date: 02/26/2008

Notes

Cited sources

• Dean, Winton and Knapp, J. Merrill, Handel's Operas, 1704–1726. Clarendon Press, 1987 ISBN 0-19-315219-3