HANDEL

 

Amadigi di Gaula

 

Opera in 3 acts

 

Amadigi......Maria Riccarda Wesseling

Oriane......Elena de la Merced

Melisse & Orgando......Sharon Rostorf Zamir

Dardanus......Jordi Domenech

 

Al Ayre Español Orquestra

Eduardo López Banzo - harpsichord and conductor

 

Amadigi di Gaula was inspired by a text written by the French writer Antoine Houdar de la Motte entitled “Amadis de Grèce”. Destouches had already composed music around this text sixteen years before Handel. It was the composer’s fifth London opera and received its first performance in London at the Haymarket Theatre on 25 May 1715. The original cast included the celebrated castrato Nicolo Grimaldi. It was a great success and received a known minimum of 17 further performances in London through 1717, and a similar number in Hamburg from 1717-1720, with a different title, Oriana. It then fell into neglect until a revival performance in 1968 at the Abbey Hall, Abingdon, by the English based “Unicorn Opera Group”.

 

Although the plot of “Amadigi di Gaula” is convoluted, it has at its centre a fairly simple premise. Amagigi, a famous hero, and Dardano, Prince of Thrace, are rivals for the love of Oriana, daughter of the King of the Fortune Islands. Oriana is in love with Amadigi, as is the sorceress Melissa who throughout the opera tries to captivate him with potions and spells. Needless to say after various twists, true love conquers all and Amadigi and Oriana end up in each others arms.

 

Ambroisie 2cds + book AM133