HANDEL

Fernando, rè di Castiglia

 

Lawrence Zazzo, Veronica Cangemi, Marianna Pizzolato, Max Emmanuel Cencic, Filippo Adami, Antonio Abete, Neal Banerjee

Il Complesso Barocco / Alan Curtis

 

Fernando is the sixth Handel opera on Virgin Classics from Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco. Three of Alan’s previous recordings have won the International Handel Recording Prize, a remarkable achievement: Arminio in 2002, Deidamia in 2004 and Radamisto in 2006.

 

Fernando, re di Castiglia is not a title opera-goers will be familiar with, although the music may be familiar as Fernando later became Sosarme, one of Handel’s finest operas.

 

Alan Curtis has prepared his own edition of Fernando, which restores some recitative cut or truncated during the transformation into Sosarme, in particular the meticulously prepared accompagnato in the opening scene. In most respects however, the music, the plot and the characters are those of Sosarme and the opera contains some of Handel’s finest music, including the blissful duet ‘Per le porte del tormento’, which Alan Curtis included in his duets disc ‘Amor e gelosia’ (545 6282).

 

The opera is set in late 13th-century Portugal. The characters are loosely based on historical figures - the Portuguese King Dionisio, his rebellious son Alfonso and Fernando, King of Castille. It seems the reasons for the original Fernando plot transforming into Sosarme was political. In the first half of the eighteenth century Portugal, under King John V, was a firm ally of Britain, and a libretto presenting the Portuguese royal family in an unflattering light might have seemed too risky. Two-thirds of the way through the composition Handel decided to change the characters and location to mythical antiquity and the new opera was born.

 

The title role, written for Senesino, is sung here by the American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo (Arsamene on Christie’s Serse); Fernando’s wife Elvida is sung by Argentinian soprano Veronica Cangemi.

 

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