Alessandro

George Frideric Handel
Operas Almira (1705) Rodrigo (1707) Florindo (1708) Agrippina (1709) Rinaldo (1711) Il pastor fido (1712) Silla (1713) Teseo (1713) Amadigi di Gaula (1715) Acis and Galatea (1718) Radamisto (1720) Muzio Scevola (1721) Floridante (1721) Ottone (1723) Flavio (1723) Giulio Cesare (1724) Tamerlano (1724) Rodelinda (1725) Scipione (1726) Alessandro (1726) Admeto (1727) Riccardo Primo (1727) Siroe (1728) Tolomeo (1728) Lotario (1729) Partenope (1730) Poro (1731) Ezio (1732) Sosarme (1732) Orlando (1733) Arianna in Creta (1734) Oreste (1734) Ariodante (1735) Alcina (1735) Atalanta (1736) Arminio (1737) Giustino (1737) Berenice (1737) Alessandro Severo (1738) Faramondo (1738) Serse (1738) Giove in Argo (1739) Imeneo (1740) Deidamia (1741) Semele (1744) Alceste (1750) List of operas
Oratorios Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (1707) La resurrezione (1708) Brockes Passion (1715) Esther (1718) Deborah (1733) Athalia (1733) Alexander's Feast (1736) Il trionfo del tempo e della verità (1737) Saul (1738) Israel in Egypt (1738) L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740) Messiah (1741) Samson (1741) Semele (1743) Joseph and his Brethren (1743) Hercules (1744) Belshazzar (1744) Occasional Oratorio (1746) Judas Maccabaeus (1746) Joshua (1747) Alexander Balus (1747) Susanna (1748) Solomon (1748) Theodora (1749) The Choice of Hercules (1750) Jephtha (1752) The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757)
Cantatas (partial list) Tra le fiamme (Il consiglio) (1707) Un' alma innamorata (1707) Ero e Leandro (1707) Clori, Tirsi e Fileno (1707) O lucenti, o sereni occhi (1707) Aure soavi e lieti (1707) Del bell'idolo mio (1707–09) Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (1708) Dalla guerra amorosa (1709) Apollo e Dafne (1710) Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (1713) Ode for St. Cecilia's Day (1739)
Wikipedia Book
v t e

Alessandro (Alexander the Great, HWV 21) is an opera written for the Royal Academy of Music (1719) composed by George Frideric Handel in 1726. Paolo Rolli was the librettist and based the story on Ortensio Mauro's La superbia d'Alessandro. This was the first opera where Handel had cast together in the same opera the famous singers Faustina Bordoni, as Rossane, and Francesca Cuzzoni, as Lisaura. Handel made use of their real-life professional rivalry in his treatment of the story.^[1] The original cast also included Francesco Bernardi.

Handel had originally planned Alessandro to be his first contribution to the 1725-1726 season of the Royal Academy. However, Bordoni did not arrive in London in time to stage Alessandro, and Handel substituted his own Scipione in March and April 1726 until her arrival. The opera received its first performance on 5 May 1726 at the King's Theatre, London.^[2]

The story is based around Alexander the Great's journey to India, where he meets Poro, the king of India, who was the subject of another Handel opera of that name.

Roles

Synopsis

Alessandro comes to believe that he is the son of the god Jupiter. His delusion is such that he demands to be worshipped as a god. His Macedonian captains conspire to cure him of this belief, but their efforts are weak. During the course of the work, Rossane and Lisaura are rivals for the affection of Alessandro.

Recordings

Deutsche Harmonia Mundi IC 157 16 9537 3: René Jacobs, Sophie Boulin, Isabelle Poulenard, Jean Nirouet, Stephen Varcoe, Guy de Mey, Ria Bollen; La Petite Bande; Sigiswald Kuijken, conductor^[1]

Studios Classique CD SC 100 303: Anita Terzia, Phoebe Atkinson, Betty Rieders, Lola Watson, Thomas Poole, Perry Price, Norman Andersson; Sinfonia Varsovia; Mieczysław Nowakowski, conductor

References

Notes

Sources

• Amadeus Almanac
• Dean, Winton (2006), Handel's Operas, 1726-1741, Boydell Press, ISBN 1-84383-268-2  The second of the two volume definitive reference on the operas of Handel/

E-book

Score of Alessandro (ed. Friedrich Chrysander, Leipzig 1877)