Par CAVALLI FRANCESCO. In 1662, Cavalli’s career was at its zenith. The two dozen operas he had written for Venice had helped establish Venice as the world’s first operatic superpower. “Scipione Affricano” (Venice 1664), Cavalli’s first opera after returning from France, was one of his most successful compositions. In a period that valued new works over familiar ones, “Scipione” was one of a handful of operas to live on after its premiere season: it was revived eight times and chosen to inaugurate Rome’s Teatro Tordinona in 1671. Cavalli’s librettist, Nicolò Minato, was inspired by historical accounts of the life of the Roman general Scipio, whose defeat of Carthage in 202 BCE earned him the honorary agnomen “Africanus.” In setting Minato’s libretto, Cavalli drew upon the lyrical gifts that have made operas like “La Calisto” and “Giasone” so popular today. But at the same time “Scipione Affricano” also shows the composer embracing aspects of his two years in France, and responding to musical changes that, in the 1660s, were rapidly altering the face of Italian opera: the growing dominance of arias, a clearer sense of aria organization, and increased interplay between voice and instruments. The first goal of this edition is a practical one: to develop a version of the opera suited to the needs of both professional and student performers. A second goal is to reconstruct the opera’s complete performance history. An amply documented appendix reconstructs earlier versions of 21 arias. Other appendices print the surviving additional music from revivals in Rome and Venice. The edition is framed by a substantial Introduction, covering the drama, the musical style, the composition, premiere, and revivals, and a guide for performance today, plus a detailed “decoding” of the sources. - series Francesco Cavalli – Opere / Date parution : 2022-11-08/ Répertoire / Opéra

Couverture Rigide. Par HAENDEL GEORG FRIEDRICH. Handel's 'Il pastor fido”, HWV 8a, is the most modest of his Italian operas: With over half of its numbers drawing from musical material of earlier Italian cantatas, the work deliberately reflects the pastoral style of the Italian serenata. In order to capture the simplicity of this approach to form, Handel made use of several different techniques, such as a consistent use of high vocal registers, an abundance of monothematic da capo arias, and an overall prevalence of held-back arias. 'Il pastor fido” did not lend itself particularly well for an opera adaptation: Reducing the original text to the scale of an opera libretto posed an immense challenge. With drastic cuts, Handel's librettist Rossi condensed five acts with eighteen characters into three acts with only six roles. The libretto – a paltry sketch of the complex original drama – was not well received. But Rossi had actually done his best to add a sense of coherence to the story while preserving at least some of Guarini's poetic language. This 'Halle Handel Edition' volume compares several sources that were not available for earlier editions. Amongst other things it presents the first modern edition of the complete overture, the complete stage instructions from the libretto, and an alternative ending for the duet of Mirtillo and Amarilli in the third act./ Répertoire / Conducteur