George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) was a
German-born British Baroque composer, famous for his
operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel
was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music. He
received critical musical training in Halle, Hamburg
and Italy before settling in London (1712) and becoming
a naturalised British subject in 1727. By then he was
strongly influenced by the great composers of the
Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral
tradition.
Sc...(+)
George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) was a
German-born British Baroque composer, famous for his
operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel
was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music. He
received critical musical training in Halle, Hamburg
and Italy before settling in London (1712) and becoming
a naturalised British subject in 1727. By then he was
strongly influenced by the great composers of the
Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral
tradition.
Scipione was the eighth of the full-length operas
Handel composed for the Royal Academy of Music, the
London promoters of Italian opera at the King's
Theatre. Even for a composer famed for the speed with
which he composed, it was written in considerable
haste. According to Handel's librettist, Paolo Antonio
Rolli, it was composed in only three weeks, with Handel
completing the score just ten days before the opening
night, March 12, 1726. Handel had good reason to be in
such a hurry. It had been his intention to open the
season with Alessandro, composed as a showpiece to
display the talents of three of the greatest singers of
the day, the castrato Senesino, and the rival sopranos,
Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, newly engaged
by the Royal Academy. When it became obvious Bordoni
would not arrive in England in time, Handel, obviously
feeling he needed a new opera with which to open the
season, turned to Scipione.
Rolli's text, cast in the usual three acts, is based on
an earlier libretto by Antonio Salvi, Publio Cornelio
Scipione (1704). In keeping with many of the operas
Handel composed during this period, the plot has a
historical context, in this instance the capture of the
Spanish port of Cartagena by the young Roman general
Publius Cornelius Scipio in 209 B.C. The opera opens
with the famous March that accompanies Scipio's
triumphant entry into the city, but the subsequent plot
is centered around his love for Berenice (soprano), a
captured princess. Berenice, however is already
betrothed to the prince Luceius (a role taken by
Senesino in the first performances), who disguises
himself as a Roman in a vain attempt to rescue her.
After much misunderstanding and imbroglio, Luceius is
revealed as Berenice's lover. Scipio, true to the
magnanimous character of opera seria heroes, renounces
his claim to Berenice. Most commentators agree that
Scipione shows signs of the haste with which it was
written, the Handel authority Winton Dean suggesting
that, with the exception of Floridante of 1721, it is
the weakest of all his Royal Academy operas.
Nevertheless, it contains some fine music particularly
in Act II, where the drama reaches a peak in the
confrontation between Scipio and Luceius, and
Berenice's avowal of constancy articulated in her aria
"Scoglio d'immota fronte." The scoring is lightweight,
largely being restricted to strings with a pair of
flutes included in one aria and two recorders in
another. Although the opera achieved a respectable
initial run of 13 performances, it was revived by
Handel only once, in 1730, when the composer made
extensive alterations.
Although originally written for Brass, Woodwinds &
Strings, I created this arrangement for Woodwind
Quintet (Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, French Horn &
Bassoon).
