{"id":7409,"date":"2021-02-07T07:21:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T05:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tacotichelaar.nl\/wordpress\/?page_id=7409"},"modified":"2021-02-07T07:47:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T05:47:28","slug":"amadigi-di-gaula","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tacotichelaar.nl\/wordpress\/amadigi-di-gaula\/","title":{"rendered":"Amadigi di Gaula"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amadigi di Gaula<\/b><\/i> (HWV<\/a> 11) is a “magic” opera in three acts, with music by George Frideric Handel<\/a>. It was the fifth Italian opera<\/a> that Handel wrote for an English theatre and the second he wrote for Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington<\/a> composed during his stay at Burlington House<\/a> in 1715. The opera about a damsel in distress is based on Amadis de Gr\u00e8ce<\/a><\/i>, a French trag\u00e9die-lyrique<\/a> by Andr\u00e9 Cardinal Destouches<\/a> and Antoine Houdar de la Motte<\/a>. Charles Burney<\/a> maintained near the end of the eighteenth century, Amadigi<\/i> contained “…more invention, variety and good composition, than in any one of the musical dramas of Handel which I have yet carefully and critically examined”.[1]<\/a><\/sup>[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

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Baroque theatre in Cesky Krumlov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The opera received its first performance in London at the King’s Theatre<\/a> in the Haymarket<\/a> on 25 May 1715. Handel made prominent use of wind instruments, so the score is unusually colorful, and at points resembles the Water Music<\/a>, which he composed only a few years later. Amadigi<\/i>, written for a small cast, employs no voices lower than alto<\/a> and it ends in a minor key<\/a>. Exceptional care was lavished on the production. The opera was a success and received a known minimum of 17 further performances in London through 1717.<\/p>\n

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