Focusing on Handel's last 22 operas, this comprehensive overview highlights significant masterpieces like Orlando, Ariodante, and Alcina, alongside lighter works such as Partenope, Serse, and Imeneo. Authored by a leading authority on Handel, it offers in-depth insights into the compositions, their historical context, and their impact on the operatic landscape.
After two centures of near-total neglect, Handel's operas are now increasingly popular in the theatre, but modern productions are hampered by dependence on obsolete and inaccurate editions, and by ignorance of the musical and theatrical practice of Handel's age. Although Handel's autographs and performing scores have long been available, they have never before been fully studied, still less the very early manuscript copies. The manuscripts have yielded a great deal of unknown music, besides throwing fresh light on Handel's methods of composition and performance practice. This book covers Handel's first seventeen surviving operas, including his greatest and most successful. Each opera has a chapter, with a full synopsis of the libretto (including all original stage directions) and a comparison with its literary and dramatic sources. Each chapter covers the history of the opera in performance and the different versions in the manuscripts. Every known surviving manuscript has been examined. Eight appendices cover all performances in Handel's time, borrowings, modern revivals, new information on his singers, and a complete index of Italian first lines in all Handel's works. About the Authors: Wynton Dean is the author of Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques. John Merrill Knapp is Emeritus Professor of Music at Princeton University.
The memoir offers a vivid portrayal of Winton Dean's early life, highlighting his complex family background. He delves into the controversial legacy of his father, Basil Dean, a prominent theatrical and film producer, and shares intriguing insights about his great uncle Rufus Isaacs and Daisy, Countess of Warwick, who had a notable affair with Edward, Prince of Wales. Dean's reflections provide a unique glimpse into the intertwined worlds of music, theatre, and aristocracy during a transformative period in history.