43-713: Alcina ( HWV 34) is a 1735 opera seria by George Frideric Handel . Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina , an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi , which he acquired the year after during his travels in Italy. Partly altered for better conformity, the story was originally taken from Ludovico Ariosto 's Orlando furioso (like those of the Handel operas Orlando and Ariodante ), an epic poem. The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance: these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé . Alcina
86-504: A duel. Morgana stops the fight, but Oronte is in a foul mood and takes it out on Ruggiero. He tells the young man exactly how Alcina treats her former lovers and adds that, as far as he can tell, Alcina has fallen in love with the newcomer, Ricciardo ( Semplicetto! A donna credi? Nr. 12). Ruggiero is horrified and overwhelms Alcina with his jealous fury. Things get even worse when 'Ricciardo' enters and pretends to admire Alcina. Alcina calms Ruggiero ( Sì, son quella Nr. 13), but Bradamante
129-434: A few Metastasio libretti for his London audience, preferring a greater diversity of texts. At this time the leading Metastasian composers were Hasse, Caldara , Vinci, Porpora, and Pergolesi . Vinci's settings of Didone abbandonata and Artaserse were much praised for their stromento recitative, and he played a crucial part in establishing the new style of melody. Hasse, by contrast, indulged in stronger accompaniment and
172-523: A few exceptions, opera seria was the opera of the court , of the monarchy and the nobility. This is not a universal picture: Handel in London composed not for the court but for a much more socially diverse audience, and in the Venetian republic composers modified their operas to suit the public taste and not that of the court. But for the most part, opera seria was synonymous with court opera. This brought with it
215-476: A fully staged production during the 2017 Santa Fe Opera season with Elza van den Heever in the title role. Among many other performances worldwide, the opera was staged by the Salzburg Festival in 2019, with Cecilia Bartoli in the title role. The background of the opera comes from the poem Orlando Furioso. The heroic knight Ruggiero is destined to a short but glorious life, and a benevolent magician
258-583: A number of conditions: the court, and particularly the monarch, required that their own nobility be reflected on the stage. Opera seria plot-lines are heavily shaped by this criterion: Il re pastore displays the glory of Alexander the Great , while La clemenza di Tito does the same for the Roman emperor Titus . The potentate in the audience would watch his counterparts from the ancient world and see their benevolent autocracy redound to his own credit. Many aspects of
301-519: A response to French criticism of what were often viewed as impure and corrupting librettos. As response, the Rome-based Academy of Arcadia sought to return Italian opera to what they viewed as neoclassical principles, obeying the classical unities of drama, defined by Aristotle , and replacing "immoral" plots, such as Busenello 's for L'incoronazione di Poppea , with highly moral narratives that aimed to instruct, as well as entertain. However,
344-425: A series of recitatives containing dialogue interspersed with arias expressing the emotions of the character, this pattern only broken by the occasional duet for the leading amatory couple. The recitative was typically secco : that is, accompanied only by continuo (usually harpsichord , theorbo , and cello, sometimes supported by further bass and chordal instruments). At moments of especially violent passion secco
387-424: A young man and goes by the name of her own brother, Ricciardo. She and Melisso possess a magic ring which enables the wearer to see through illusion, which they plan to use to break Alcina's spells and release her captives. The first person they meet is the sorceress Morgana. Barely human and with no understanding of true love, she immediately abandons her own lover Oronte for the handsome 'Ricciardo.' Morgana conveys
430-410: Is always whisking him away from the arms of his fiancée, Bradamante . Bradamante is not the type to put up with the constant disappearance of her lover, and she spends vast portions of the poem in full armor chasing after him. Just before the opera begins she has rescued him from an enchanted castle, only to have her flying horse (a hippogriff ) take a fancy to Ruggiero and fly off with him. Ruggiero and
473-479: Is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as something of a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa , the 'comic' opera that took its cue from
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#1733085256577516-445: Is herself, and the act ends with Morgana's aria " Tornami a vagheggiar ". (In some productions, this aria is sung by Alcina.) Melisso recalls Ruggiero to reason and duty by letting him wear the magic ring: under its influence, Ruggiero sees the island as it really is—a desert, peopled with monsters. Appalled, he realizes he must leave, and sings the famous aria " Verdi prati " ("Green meadows") where he admits that even though he knows
559-536: Is in despair, as is Alcina. Convinced of Ruggiero's indifference, she enters to turn Ricciardo into an animal, and Ruggiero has to pull himself together quickly and convince the sorceress that he does not need any proof of her love. It is at this point that the audience realises that Alcina genuinely loves Ruggiero; from now until the end of the opera, she is depicted sympathetically. Oronte realizes that Ricciardo, Melisso and Ruggiero are in some sort of alliance, and Morgana and Alcina realise they are being deceived. But it
602-453: Is introduced to a lion, to whom he feels strangely attached, and Alcina sings a desolate aria in which she longs for oblivion. Bradamante and Ruggiero decide that they need to destroy the source of Alcina's magic, usually represented as an urn. Alcina pleads with them, but Ruggiero is deaf to her appeals and smashes the urn. As he does so, everything is both ruined and restored. Alcina's magic palace crumbles to dust and she and Morgana sink into
645-509: Is so upset at seeing her fiancé wooed before her very eyes that she reveals her true identity to Ruggiero ( La bocca vaga, quell'occhio nero Nr. 14). Melisso hastily contradicts her and Ruggiero becomes very confused. Alcina tells Morgana that she plans to turn Ricciardo into an animal, just to show Ruggiero how much she really loves him. Morgana begs Ricciardo to escape the island and Alcina's clutches, but 'he' says he'd rather stay, as he loves another. Morgana believes that this other person
688-508: Is too late: Alcina's powers depend on illusion and, as true love enters her life, her magic powers slip away. As the act ends, Alcina tries to call up evil spirits to stop Ruggiero from leaving her, but her magic fails her. After this the opera finishes swiftly. Morgana and Oronte try to rebuild their relationship; she returns to him and he rebuffs her but (once she is offstage) admits he loves her still. Ruggiero returns to his proper heroic status and sings an aria accompanied by high horns; Oberto
731-669: The Dallas Opera in November of that year. She performed in the same production at the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, in 1962. Since then Alcina has been performed on many of the world's stages. A major production was the one directed by Robert Carsen and originally staged for the Opéra de Paris in 1999 and repeated at the Lyric Opera of Chicago . Both stagings featured Renée Fleming in
774-424: The aria da capo began to fade, replaced by the rondò. Orchestras grew in size, arias lengthened, ensembles became more prominent, and obbligato recitative became both common and more elaborate. While throughout the 1780s Metastasio's libretti still dominated the repertory, a new group of Venetian librettists pushed opera seria in a new direction. The work of Gaetano Sertor and the group surrounding him finally broke
817-458: The castrati , often prodigiously gifted male singers who had undergone castration before puberty in order to retain a high, powerful soprano or alto voice backed by decades of rigorous musical training. They were cast in heroic male roles, alongside another new breed of operatic creature, the prima donna . The rise of these star singers with formidable technical skills spurred composers to write increasingly complex vocal music, and many operas of
860-451: The serenata Gli orti esperidi ("The Gardens of the Hesperides "). Nicola Porpora , (much later to be Haydn 's master), set the work to music, and the success was so great that the famed Roman prima donna , Marianna Bulgarelli , "La Romanina", sought out Metastasio, and took him on as her protégé. Under her wing, Metastasio produced libretto after libretto, and they were rapidly set by
903-457: The French operatic tradition. Jommelli's works from 1740 onwards increasingly favored accompanied recitative and greater dynamic contrast, as well as a more prominent role for the orchestra while limiting virtuosic vocal displays. Traetta reintroduced the ballet in his operas and restored the tragic, melodramatic endings of classical dramas. His operas, particularly after 1760, also gave a larger role to
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#1733085256577946-516: The absolute dominance of the singers and gave opera seria a new impetus towards the spectacular and the dramatic elements of 19th-century Romantic opera. Tragic endings, on-stage death and regicide became the norm rather than the exception. By the final decade of the century opera seria as it had been traditionally defined was essentially dead, and the political upheavals that the French Revolution inspired swept it away once and for all. With
989-553: The choice key for a composer's typical "rage" aria , while D major for pomp and bravura, G minor for pastoral effect and E flat for pathetic effect, became the usual options. After peaking during the 1750s, the popularity of the Metastasian model began to wane. New trends, popularized by composers such as Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta , began to seep into opera seria . The Italianate pattern of alternating, sharply-contrasted recitative and aria began to give way to ideas from
1032-413: The chorus. The culmination of these reforms arrived in the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck . Beginning with Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Gluck drastically cut back on the possibilities for vocal virtuosity afforded to singers, abolished secco recitative (thereby heavily reducing the delineation between aria and recitative), and took great care to unify drama, dance, music, and theatrical practice in
1075-564: The conventions of the High Baroque era by developing and exploiting the da capo aria , with its A–B–A form. The first section presented a theme, the second a complementary one, and the third a repeat of the first with ornamentation and elaboration of the music by the singer. As the genre developed and arias grew longer, a typical opera seria would contain not more than thirty musical movements. A typical opera would start with an instrumental overture of three movements (fast-slow-fast) and then
1118-820: The greatest composers in Italy and Austria, establishing the transnational tone of opera seria : Didone abbandonata , Catone in Utica , Ezio , Alessandro nelle Indie , Semiramide riconosciuta , Siroe and Artaserse . After 1730 he was settled in Vienna and turned out more librettos for the imperial theater, until the mid-1740s: Adriano in Siria , Demetrio , Issipile [ de ] , Demofoonte , Olimpiade , La clemenza di Tito , Achille in Sciro , Temistocle , Il re pastore and what he regarded as his finest libretto, Attilio Regolo [ de ] . For
1161-500: The ground, but Alcina's lovers are returned to their proper selves. The lion turns into Oberto's father, Astolfo, and other people stumble on, "I was a rock," says one, "I a tree" says another, and "I a wave in the ocean..." All the humans sing of their relief and joy, and Alcina is forgotten. Notes Sources Opera seria Opera seria ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈɔːpera ˈsɛːrja] ; plural: opere serie ; usually called dramma per musica or melodramma serio )
1204-746: The hippogriff land on an island in the middle of the ocean. As the hippogriff begins to eat the leaves of a myrtle bush, Ruggiero is startled to hear the bush begin to speak. The bush reveals that it was once a living soul named Sir Astolfo , and the island belongs to the sister sorceresses Alcina and Morgana. The beautiful Alcina seduces every knight that lands on her isle, but soon tires of her lovers and changes them into stones, animals, plants, or anything that strikes her fancy. Despite Astolfo's warning, Ruggiero strides off to meet this sorceress – and falls under her spell. Bradamante, again searching for her lover, arrives on Alcina's island with Ruggiero's former tutor, Melisso . Dressed in armor, Bradamante looks like
1247-1005: The improvisatory commedia dell'arte . An opera seria had a historical or Biblical subject, whereas an opera buffa had a contemporary subject. Italian opera seria (invariably to Italian libretti ) was produced not only in Italy but almost throughout Europe, and beyond (see Opera in Latin America , Opera in Cuba e. g.). Among the main centres in Europe were the court operas based in Warsaw (since 1628), Munich (founded in 1653), London (established in 1662), Vienna (firmly established 1709; first operatic representation: Il pomo d'oro , 1668), Dresden (since 1719) as well as other German residences , Saint Petersburg (Italian opera reached Russia in 1731, first opera venues followed c. 1742 ), Madrid (see Spanish opera ), and Lisbon . Opera seria
1290-487: The island and Alcina are mere illusion, their beauty will haunt him for the rest of his life. Melisso warns Ruggiero that he cannot just leave; Alcina still wields immense power, and he should cover his escape by telling her that he wishes to go hunting. Ruggiero agrees, but, thoroughly bewildered by the magic and illusion surrounding him, he refuses to believe his eyes when he at last sees Bradamante as herself, believing that she may be another of Alcina's illusions. Bradamante
1333-400: The librettos, Metastasio and his imitators customarily drew on dramas featuring classical characters from antiquity bestowed with princely values and morality, struggling with conflicts between love, honour and duty, in elegant and ornate language that could be performed equally well as both opera and non-musical drama. On the other hand, Handel, working far outside the mainstream genre, set only
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1376-409: The often tragic endings of classical drama were rejected out of a sense of decorum: early writers of opera seria librettos such as Apostolo Zeno felt that virtue should be rewarded and shown triumphant, while the antagonists were to be put on their way to remorse. The spectacle and ballet, so common in French opera, were banished. The age of opera seria corresponded with the rise to prominence of
1419-749: The second half of the 18th century Christoph Willibald Gluck , Niccolò Jommelli , Tommaso Traetta , Josef Mysliveček , Joseph Haydn , Johann Christian Bach , Carl Heinrich Graun , Antonio Salieri , Antonio Sacchini , Giuseppe Sarti , Niccolò Piccinni , Giovanni Paisiello , Domenico Cimarosa , and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . By far the most successful librettist of the era was Metastasio , others were Apostolo Zeno , Benedetto Pamphili , Silvio Stampiglia , Antonio Salvi , Pietro Pariati , Pietro Ottoboni , Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino , Nicola Francesco Haym , Domenico Lalli , Paolo Antonio Rolli , Giovanni Claudio Pasquini , Ranieri de' Calzabigi and Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca . Opera seria built upon
1462-610: The staging contributed to this effect: both the auditorium and stage were lit during performances, while the sets mirrored almost exactly the architecture of the palace hosting the opera. Sometimes the links between opera and audience were even closer: Gluck's serenata Il Parnaso confuso was first performed at Vienna with a cast consisting of members of the royal family. However, with the French Revolution came serious political upheavals across Italy, and as new, more egalitarian republics were established and old autocracies fell away,
1505-479: The synthesis of Italian and French traditions. He continued his reform with Alceste (1767) and Paride ed Elena (1770). Gluck paid great attention to orchestration and considerably increased the role of the chorus: he also cut back heavily on exit arias. The labyrinthine subplots that had riddled earlier baroque opera were eliminated. In 1768, the year after Gluck's Alceste , Jommelli and his librettist Verazi produced Fetonte . Ensemble and chorus are predominant:
1548-473: The time were written as vehicles for specific singers. Of these the most famous is perhaps Farinelli , whose debut in 1722 was guided by Nicola Porpora . Though Farinelli did not sing for Handel, his main rival, Senesino , did. Opera seria acquired definitive form early during the 1720s. While Apostolo Zeno and Alessandro Scarlatti had paved the way, the genre only truly came to fruition due to Metastasio and later composers. Metastasio's career began with
1591-664: The title role. The opera was given a concert performance on 10 October 2014 at the Barbican Centre in London. Joyce DiDonato sang the title role under Harry Bicket with The English Concert . Alice Coote , Christine Rice and Anna Christy sang other significant roles. The group toured to the European continent with performances in Pamplona, Madrid, Vienna, and Paris and then to Carnegie Hall in New York on 26 October. Alcina received
1634-665: The usual number of exit arias slashed in half. For the most part, however, these trends did not become mainstream until the 1790s, and the Metastasian model continued to dominate. Gluck's reforms made most of the composers of opera seria of the previous decades obsolete. The careers of Hasse, Jommelli, Galuppi , and Traetta were effectively finished. Replacing them came a new wave of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Joseph Haydn , Johann Christian Bach , Carl Heinrich Graun , Antonio Salieri (a disciple of Gluck), Antonio Sacchini , Giuseppe Sarti , Niccolò Piccinni , Giovanni Paisiello and Domenico Cimarosa . The popularity of
1677-632: The visitors to Alcina's court, where Bradamante is dismayed to discover that Ruggiero is besotted with Alcina and in a state of complete amnesia about his previous life. Also at Alcina's court is a boy, Oberto, who is looking for his father, Astolfo, who was last seen heading toward this island. Bradamante guesses that Astolfo is now transformed into something, but she holds her peace and concerns herself with Ruggiero. Bradamante and Melisso rebuke Ruggiero for his desertion, but he can't think of anything except Alcina. Meanwhile, Oronte discovers that Morgana has fallen in love with 'Ricciardo,' and challenges 'him' to
1720-686: Was composed for Handel's first season at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. It premiered on 16 April 1735. Like the composer's other works in the opera seria genre, Alcina fell into obscurity; after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928. The Australian soprano Joan Sutherland sang the role in a production by Franco Zeffirelli in which she made her debut at La Fenice in February 1960 and at
1763-469: Was less popular in France, where the national genre of French opera (or tragédie en musique ) was preferred. Acclaimed composers of opera seria included Antonio Caldara , Alessandro Scarlatti , George Frideric Handel , Antonio Vivaldi , Tomaso Albinoni , Nicola Porpora , Leonardo Vinci , Johann Adolph Hasse , Leonardo Leo , Baldassare Galuppi , Francesco Feo , Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and in
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1806-476: Was regarded at the time as the more adventurous of the two. Pergolesi was noted for his lyricism. The main challenge for all was achieving variety, a break from the pattern of recitativo secco and aria da capo . The mutable moods of Metastasio's librettos helped, as did innovations made by the composer, such as stromento recitative or cutting a ritornello . During this period the choice of keys to reflect certain emotions became standardized: D minor became
1849-572: Was replaced by stromentato (or accompagnato ) recitative, where the singer was accompanied by the entire body of strings. After an aria was sung, accompanied by strings and oboe (and sometimes with horns or flutes), the character usually exited the stage, encouraging the audience to applaud. This continued for three acts before concluding with an upbeat chorus, to celebrate the jubilant climax. The leading singers each expected their fair share of arias of varied mood, be they sad, angry, heroic or meditative. The dramaturgy of opera seria developed largely as
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