Handel Rinaldo

CD liner note

Anthony Hicks writes:

Handel’s early musical training in his native town of Halle, under Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, was intended to equip him for a career as a Lutheran church musician, but in 1704 he moved to Hamburg and obtained a post there as a violinist in the orchestra of the opera house. By the end of the year he had composed his first opera, Almira, which opened with some success in January 1705. For the next thirty-five years, the composition of operas was to be his main occupation. Nero, his second opera for Hamburg, was not well received, however, and his opportunities in that city were restricted by the dominance of its leading composer, Reinhard Keiser. In 1706 Handel travelled to Italy to gain further experience and produced Rodrigo, his first Italian opera, in Florence in the autumn of 1707. His Roman oratorios, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (1707) and La Resurrezione (1708) were also important and brilliant essays in operatic style, and prepared the way for the production of his Agrippina in Venice on 26 December 1709. It met with extraordinary success — audiences at the San Giovanni Grisostomo theatre were reported to have hailed the composer with cries of ‘Viva il caro Sassone’ (‘Long live the dear Saxon’) — and, because of the many foreign visitors who filled Venice for the winter carnival season, the opera gained Handel international fame. In some performances Handel included an aria with interludes improvised on the harpsichord, thus enabling him also to display his skills as a performer.

The exact circumstances which encouraged Handel to move to England the following autumn still remain obscure, but almost certainly the move was brought about by invitations from English noblemen and gentry who had heard Agrippina in Venice and who were keen to establish Italian opera to London on a proper footing. The concept of opera as a wholly sung musical drama was still new in Britain. In the late seventeenth century an English ‘opera’ was essentially a play with grand scenic effects and substantial musical interpolations, the supreme examples of which were Purcell’s King Arthur (with words by Dryden) and The Fairy Queen (adapted from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). However, examples of all-sung operas in Italian style were introduced to London in 1705, and in the following year an English version of Giovanni Bononcini’s Camilla (originally written for Naples in 1696) was particularly successful. Attempts were made at creating entirely original English works in similar style (notably John Eccles’ Semele, with a libretto by William Congreve), but the popularity of Italian singers (especially the sensational castrati) and their preference for singing in their own language hindered the production of such English works. Instead adaptations or pasticcios (made up of arias collected from several different works) were performed, and by 1710 opera in the Italian language had become established on the London stage, despite much vituperative critical comment. There was clearly a need for a composer with appropriate experience who could supply newly written works of that kind, a role which Handel could play to perfection.

The first opera Handel produced for London — and the first Italian opera specifically composed for the London stage – was Rinaldo, which opened at the Queen’s (later King’s) Theatre in the Haymarket on 24 February 1711. Handel’s collaborator on the project was the twenty-four-year-old writer and would-be impresario Aaron Hill, who had taken over the management of the Queen’s Theatre for the season of 1710-11. He devised an outline for an opera based on episodes from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, a fantastically elaborated account of the First Crusade (1096-99) in which Tasso describes how Christian forces led by Godfrey of Bouillon capture the city of Jerusalem from Muslim rule. Hill’s scenario has only a tenuous relationship with Tasso’s narrative, however, and he introduces the entirely new character of Almirena, Godfrey’s daughter, for the sake of operatic convention. On this plan Giacomo Rossi wrote the libretto for Rinaldo. Hill’s view (expressed in a preface to the printed libretto) was that earlier Italian operas in London had been

‘compos’d for Tastes and Voices, different from those who were to sing and hear them on the English Stage’, and that they lacked ‘the Machines and Decorations, which bestow so great a Beauty on their Appearance’. He had therefore ‘resolv’d to frame some Dramma, that, by different Incidents and Passions, might afford the Musick Scope to vary and display its Excellence, and to fill the Eye with more delightful Prospects, so to give Two Senses equal Pleasure’.

In essence he wanted to re-create the spectacular stage effects which had been a feature of the semi-operas of the previous decade (notably King Arthur) while allowing the music to take the new Italian form dominated by solo arias connected by recitative. Unfortunately, Hill’s visionary enthusiasm seems not to have been balanced by sound financial management. The tradesmen who supplied the scenery and costumes, and the musicians, complained that they were not being paid according to their contracts, and on 3 March 1711, nine days after the première of Rinaldo, the Lord Chamberlain revoked Hill’s licence to manage the theatre.

Whether Handel was one of the dissatisfied creditors is not clear, but he did his duty in providing a scintillating score for the opera. It achieved a first run of fifteen performances and must have helped to pay the bills. As was also the case with Agrippina, Handel partially ensured the success of the music by drawing much of it from the best of the works he had written earlier in Italy, including Il trionfo del Tempo, several large-scale cantatas and Agrippina itself. The first aria for Argante, ‘Sibillar gli angui d’Aletto’ comes directly from the role of Polyphemus in the cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, two of the duets are from the cantata Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, and the song of the Sirens is from the cantata Aminta e Fillide. Almirena’s ‘Bel piacere’, with its teasing changes of metre, comes from Agrippina, and her heartfelt plea for liberty in Act Two, ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’, was originally a seductive song in Il trionfo del Tempo, with an even earlier origin as a sarabande in Almira. In his Italian introduction to the libretto Rossi says that he and Handel had been engaged in ‘a contest of skill’ in respect of the time taken to create the opera, ‘for Mr Hendel, the Orpheus of our age, in setting it to music, scarce gave me time to write, and I saw to my great amazement, an entire opera composed by that sublime genius, to the highest degree of perfection, in only two weeks’. Rossi knew, of course, that since both words and music of a few numbers had been taken from earlier works, Handel had indeed produced some of the music before Rossi needed to supply any words.

There is plenty of freshly composed music in the score as well, and Handel, taking advantage of the many skilled instrumental players available in London, calls for a wonderful range of orchestral colour. Argante’s first aria features three trumpets and timpani (the original in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo has two trumpets only) and these instruments return (with an additional fourth trumpet) in Act Three for the Christians’ March, Rinaldo’s final aria ‘Or la tromba’ and the battle music depicting the assault on Jerusalem. The use of woodwind solos is also highly inventive. A consort of recorders (with a virtuoso part for sopranino recorder) imitates birdsong in Almirena’s garden as she sings the aria ‘Augelletti’. Solos for oboe and violin appear in the overture, and a plangent duet for solo oboe and solo bassoon sets the mood aptly for Armida’s lament in Act Two. In Armida’s aria at the end of the act Handel repeats the device he had used in Agrippina of including his own harpsichord improvisations within the aria. Soon after the first performance the aria was published ‘with the Harpsicord Piece perform’d by Mr. Hendel’, i.e. with written-out keyboard solos at the points where improvisation is required. These solos are convincingly Handelian and are used in the present performance.

The emotional depth which the music brings to the characters is no less striking. It is especially apparent in the role of Armida, first of a line of Handelian sorceresses in whom a propensity for evil is disconcertingly undermined by the experience of true love. She gives an immediate impression of fiery passion in her opening cavatina ‘Furie terribili’, a mood that reappears in the central section of her great lament in Act Two, ‘Ah! crudel, il pianto mio’, contrasting with the slow, grief-laden main section of the aria. Rinaldo’s own aria of lament in Act One, ‘Cara sposa’, is even more intense, its brooding power sustained by the fully worked and occasionally chromatic counterpoint of the string accompaniment. This is only one side of his character: his energy and heroism come to the fore in the final aria of Act One (‘Venti, turbini, prestate’), with its brilliant solos for violin and bassoon, and in ‘Or la tromba’, where the voice contends with the four trumpets. Almirena’s charm appears in her birdsong aria ‘Augelletti’ and in ‘Bel piacere’, but there is also fortitude in her first aria (‘Combatti da forte’) and her ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ is a supreme example of Handel’s ability to convey a sense of limitless despair with the simplest of means.

In 1711 the roles of Rinaldo and Eustazio were sung by the leading castrati Nicolo Grimaldi (‘Nicolini’) and Valentino Urbani. The equally distinguished sopranos Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti and Isabella Girardeau sang Armida and Almirena, the contralto Francesca Vanini-Boschi sang Goffredo and her husband Giuseppe Boschi sang Argante. The small role of the Magician was taken by another castrato, Giuseppe Cassani. Handel made several changes to the opera in revivals between 1712 and 1717 (the role of Eustazio was eliminated in 1713), and revised it extensively for his last revival in 1731. However, only the original of 1711 has the full measure of extravagant vitality which so excited its first audiences and still thrills today. In returning to that version for the present recording, account has been taken of some minor changes which seem to have been made just before the first performance or during the initial run. Almirena’s ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ was originally placed nearer the start of her encounter with Argante in Act Two, Scene 4, but Handel revised the scene at an early stage to the more effective version sung here. Eustazio’s ‘Scorta rea di cieco amore’ in Act Two, Scene 11 is not in the printed libretto of 1711, but must have been added during the first run as it was included by the publisher John Walsh when he issued a collection of the arias from Rinaldo shortly after the first performance. Goffredo’s ‘Solo dal brando’ in Act Three, Scene 11 was not published by Walsh, though it is in the 1711 libretto. It may have been cut when Handel added the battle music but is retained here so that all the music for Handel’s first version of Rinaldo can be presented together on record for the first time.

Synopsis

CD 1
1	OVERTURE
ACT ONE The action takes place in Outremer during the First Crusade (1096–99). Christian forces led by Goffredo (Godfrey of Bouillon) are laying siege to the city of Jerusalem, which is defended by its king, Argante. With Goffredo are his brother Eustazio and his daughter Almirena, who loves and is loved by the Christian knight Rinaldo. Argante’s ally and lover is Armida, Queen of Damascus and a formidable sorceress.
2 & 3	In the Christian camp, Goffredo anticipates the glory that Jerusalem’s imminent capture will bring and
4	confirms his promise to Rinaldo of Almirena’s hand in marriage if the Christians are victorious.
5	Almirena encourages Rinaldo to focus on the military campaign, setting aside for the moment all thoughts of love, but
6 & 7	he laments the pain of love delayed.
8	A herald announces the arrival of Argante who is, as Eustazio rightly anticipates, fearful of defeat, and who comes to request a three-day truce, to which Goffredo agrees.
9	Left alone, Argante longs for the arrival of Armida, who descends from the skies in a chariot drawn by dragons and informs him that her magic arts have enabled her to discover that their only hope of victory lies in depriving the Christian forces of Rinaldo’s support — a task which she herself will undertake. In a beautiful garden with singing birds, Almirena’s thoughts are of love. She and Rinaldo exchange endearments until suddenly Armida abducts Almirena under cover of a cloud full of fire-breathing monsters, leaving a distraught Rinaldo. He tells Goffredo and Eustazio what has happened and Eustazio suggests he seek help from a Christian sorcerer. Rinaldo is encouraged and calls on the winds and heaven to second his revenge.
CD 2
ACT TWO
1 & 2	Eustazio, Rinaldo and Goffredo arrive at a shore near the Sorcerer’s dwelling.
3	A spirit in the form of a beautiful woman and claiming to be sent by Almirena tries to lure Rinaldo into her boat, while
4	two Sirens sing of love’s delights.
5 & 6	Suspecting a trap, Rinaldo’s companions try to hold him back, but he rejects their counsel, breaks free, enters the boat and sails away.
7 & 8	Eustazio is amazed at Rinaldo’s apparent desertion,
9 & 10	Goffredo steels himself to fight on despite having now lost both Almirena and Rinaldo. In a beautiful garden in Armida’s enchanted palace, Almirena laments her captivity. Argante declares his love for Almirena, who challenges him to prove it by securing her release. As she continues lamenting, Argante feels himself weakening and finally promises to help her. Armida, meanwhile, exults at Rinaldo’s capture. When he is brought before her, however, she is captivated by his defiance and declares her love for him, only to be scornfully repulsed. She then tries to seduce him by taking the form of Almirena, but after some initial confusion, Rinaldo quickly suspects some deception. He leaves, and Armida is torn between vindictive fury at having been spurned and a love that renders her incapable of vengeance. Still hoping to dupe Rinaldo, Armida resumes the form of Almirena, but it is Argante who now approaches. Unlike Rinaldo, he is taken in and resumes his advances on ‘Almirena’ — much to Armida’s fury. She accuses him of treachery, he admits to loving Almirena and renounces Armida’s help. Armida vows to be revenged on Argante.
CD 3
ACT THREE
1	Eustazio and Goffredo arrive at the Sorcerer’s cave, at the foot of the same mountain on whose summit Armida’s palace is situated, guarded by monsters.
2	The Sorcerer tells them that Rinaldo and Almirena are in the palace, and they immediately set off up the mountain with their troops, ignoring his warning that they can only gain entry to the palace if they are armed with a power equal to the infernal power of Armida.
3	Hideous monsters drive them back and the mountain belches smoke and flames.
4	The Sorcerer then furnishes Goffredo and Eustazio with magic wands able to overcome Armida’s magic and encourages them to make another assault on the mountain. With the help of the wands, the monsters are routed. When the brothers touch the gates of the palace with them, both the palace and the mountain disappear and they find themselves clinging to a rock above a stormy sea. They climb over the rock and are lost to view.
5	The hermit sings to encourage them until victory is achieved, then returns to his cave.
6	Meanwhile, in the garden of her palace Armida is on the point of killing Almirena to avenge herself for Rinaldo’s indifference. He draws his sword, but spirits rise out of the ground to defend Armida.
7 & 8	She calls on the Furies to protect her as Goffredo and Eustazio arrive, but when they touch the garden with their magic wands, it disappears, leaving a vast plain with Jerusalem in the distance. Armida again tries to stab Almirena, but vanishes when Rinaldo strikes her with his sword, and Goffredo, Eustazio, Almirena and Rinaldo rejoice at being reunited. The heroes resolve to launch an assault on Jerusalem the next morning and Goffredo encourages Rinaldo to redeem the time he has lost to amorous dalliance with deeds of valour;
9 & 10	Rinaldo reflects that love and a desire for glory both spur him on to distinguish himself. The Saracens too are preparing for battle. Argante encourages his generals to fight bravely to defend Jerusalem. Faced with a common enemy, he and Armida are reconciled, and together they review their troops. In the Christian camp, Almirena looks forward to her love’s fulfilment. As the enemy approaches, Goffredo entrusts her and the camp to Eustazio’s protection. Goffredo and Rinaldo review their troops and plan their battle strategy; Goffredo will lead the mainarmy, while Rinaldo will attack from the flank. Rinaldo looks forward to success in battle and the consummation of his love. Argante and Goffredo order and encourage their troops, and finally battle is joined. For a time, the outcome hangs in the balance, but when Rinaldo, who has already succeeded in taking Jerusalem, makes his flank attack, the enemy is routed. Argante is captured by Rinaldo, Armida by Eustazio. Rinaldo and Almirena are united, Armida and Argante both embrace Christianity and are released by Goffredo. All proclaim the supreme value of virtue.