Handel's Operas

[Conchis]

I own highly regarded complete recordings of Rinaldo, Saul, Xerxesl and Theodora.

I don't think I've ever made it to the end of any of them.

I find Handel's operas crushingly dull, wholly lacking in eve the semblance of dramatic tension, cold, impersonal and generally unlistenable.

I know that, being 'opera seria', they aren't opera in the sense that we have come to understand the term.

Is there some alternative approach to listening to these things that will bring them alive for me, I wonder?

[kuligin]

Well neither Saul nor Theodora are operas!

I think the best are highly dramatic and am already looking forward to seeing Guilio Cesare again next year, but it is always hard to advise how to listen, for me some arias are just irresistable, I suppose it is a matter of taste. Do you find Handel generally dull?

[Conchis]

Well neither Saul nor Theodora are operas!

I think the best are highly dramatic and am already looking forward to seeing Guilio Cesare again next year, but it is always hard to advise how to listen, for me some arias are just irresistable, I suppose it is a matter of taste. Do you find Handel generally dull?

I'm afraid I do. I enjoy the Klemperer recording of Messiah but I think that's because of Klemperer rather than Handel.

[Stanfordian]

Well neither Saul nor Theodora are operas!

I think the best are highly dramatic and am already looking forward to seeing Guilio Cesare again next year, but it is always hard to advise how to listen, for me some arias are just irresistable, I suppose it is a matter of taste. Do you find Handel generally dull?

I have seen oratorios Saul and Theodora staged in the manner of operas.

[jean]

One reason often given for the staging of some of the oratorios is that they are felt to be more emotionally serious than the actual operas. Jephtha is another that's been successfully staged several times in recent years.

But I love the music anyway, so I don't know how to advise you.

[doversoul1]

I felt much the same about Handel’s operas and vocal works not so very long ago although I liked his instrumental works. I think I first became interested in his vocal works when I came across these performances of his early Italian cantatas on youtube.

Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno; Paul McCreesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSVFUlJji14

La resurrezione, sacred oratorio in two parts; Collegium 1704

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBjDEzApS74

As for operas, again, it was a couple of youtube videos of concert performances that got me interested but this is very much a matter of taste. I often prefer concert performance to staged performance which are often so absurd (to me, that is). I still find oratorios not as interesting as a lot of his operas.

[Flay]

As an aside to the topic, did anyone else catch Christopher Purves' rendition of Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori from the cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo? I hadn't heard it before, but sat spellbound in my car outside the Post Office, unwilling to drive off until finished. What vocal versatility!

It's here at 2 hours 22 mins into the programme

[underthecountertenor]

As an aside to the topic, did anyone else catch Christopher Purves' rendition of Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori from the cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo? I hadn't heard it before, but sat spellbound in my car outside the Post Office, unwilling to drive off until finished. What vocal versatility!

It's here at 2 hours 22 mins into the programme

I may have played it more often than just about any other track on any CD I own: everyone I have played it to has rushed to buy the CD. Spellbinding singing. I've also seen him do it live at the Wigmore and so can confirm that no recording trickery was involved.

[Richard Barrett]

Handel's operas all contain one or more really stunning arias despite their stereotyped emotions and unvaried forms, but then there's all the acreage of recitative, and the arias that just go through the motions, and the libretti that manage to combine complication with simple-mindedness... I prefer compilations of the "good bits" (since the operas really do just consist of more or less interchangeable "bits"), or, better still, the oratorios, many of which have more interesting and affecting libretti and characterisations, not to mention choruses which GFH was pretty good at and which are almost absent from his operas. I don't think it's necessarily a problem with opera seria as such, for me anyway. I find Vivaldi's operas more engaging than Handel's.

[aeolium]

Here is what I think is a good introduction to Handel's operas, and the opera seria form, in R3's Discovering Music series from about 3 years ago presented by Catherine Bott:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01yxbjr

I came to Handel's operas relatively late, not much more than a decade ago. I had compilation discs of arias from the operas, and knew quite a few of the oratorios, but had never experienced a complete opera. That changed when I saw the Glyndebourne performance of Giulio Cesare, in McVicar's production, in a cinema. I was transfixed throughout, by what seemed like an endless stream of wonderful music, with dramatic recitative and great characterisations of the different roles. The transmission lasted over 4 hours including an interval but I was not bored for an instant. After that I was keen to explore other complete operas and of those I have listened to I would say Alcina, Ariodante and Rodelinda are up with Giulio Cesare as absolutely outstanding works. As the BBC programme suggests, plot is developed through recitative and character explored through aria, with many arias also great vehicles for showcasing the abilities of the star soprano and castrato singers of the day - but not only that, for Handel's orchestral accompaniment is often so imaginative and effective with an economy of means and with a much smaller instrumental range than was available to later composers. Often simple rhetorical statements in the libretto are transformed into intensely powerful music - one of the finest, Cleopatra's Se pieta di me non senti, using only ten words for its principal section. The plots, often drawn from the romance epic of Ariosto, often seem absurd today but they would have been well known to the audiences of the time, and in any case they were principally devices by which Handel could explore character and the relationships between characters. I disagree that, in the music, the emotions are portrayed as "stereotyped" - as the BBC programme indicates with the analysis of the subtleties in the aria Dove sei from Rodelinda.

I think Handel had a strong influence on some of Mozart's later operas, not just the opera seria but also, stylistically, some of the arias in Don Giovanni and also in the way Handel used recitative sometimes for dramatic effect (as Mozart does in the recitative introducting Elvira's Mi tradi aria) but also for expressive and lyrical effect, as in Handel's recitative to Ombra mai fu. In both composers, recitative is elevated from merely being the boring bits between the arias. I feel very fortunate to be living through a period in which Handel's operas have been rediscovered and audiences made aware of the great quality that the best of them show, as great as any in the repertoire.

[Richard Barrett]

I disagree that, in the music, the emotions are portrayed as "stereotyped"

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on Handel's operas; actually I had quite a craze for them about 25 years ago and couldn't get enough of them. But many arias in these operas are stereotyped in their emotional affects, to the point where they could be and indeed were transplanted from one opera to another, or recombined into "pasticcio" concoctions. Where baroque opera is concerned I incline much more towards Rameau, whose work is much more varied in form, colour and vocal scoring, and, as previously mentioned, Vivaldi. And Handel's oratorios. I did enjoy that Glyndebourne production of Giulio Cesare on video but I've never managed to get through all of it in one sitting!

[David-G]

You ask "Is there some alternative approach to listening to these things that will bring them alive?". In my view, the answer is very simple! You have to see Handel in the theatre. When staged and sung well, the better Handel operas (such as those mentioned by Aeolium) can be simply magnificent. I could write at greater length, but Aeolium has said it for me. So, the advice for you is simple - get yourself a ticket for "Giulio Cesare" at Glyndebourne next season. It will definitely be one of the highlights of 2018.

I remember finding the Glyndebourne production of "Rodelinda" spellbinding. A scene from that production has stayed fixed in my memory. Rodelinda is mourning her (supposedly) dead husband in an aria of great pathos and beauty. As sung by Anna Caterina Antonacci, it was unforgettable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd8L9qMcm1M .

[makropulos]

You ask "Is there some alternative approach to listening to these things that will bring them alive?". In my view, the answer is very simple! You have to see Handel in the theatre. When staged and sung well, the better Handel operas (such as those mentioned by Aeolium) can be simply magnificent. I could write at greater length, but Aeolium has said it for me. So, the advice for you is simple - get yourself a ticket for "Giulio Cesare" at Glyndebourne next season. It will definitely be one of the highlights of 2018.

I remember finding the Glyndebourne production of "Rodelinda" spellbinding. A scene from that production has stayed fixed in my memory. Rodelinda is mourning her (supposedly) dead husband in an aria of great pathos and beauty. As sung by Anna Caterina Antonacci, it was unforgettable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd8L9qMcm1M .

Absolutely agree - there's no substitute for seeing these things in the theatre. Thirty years ago (and some) we were already being treated to spellbinding Handel at ENO: I was completely converted to his operas thanks to Julius Caesar with Janet Baker et al, and the wonderful Hytner production of Xerxes. The ROH/John Copley Semele was another delight. All three were conducted by Charles Mackerras. Since then the Handel production I enjoyed most was probably the revival of Orlando at the ROH in 2007 (also Mackerras). I'm still not quite sure about the Glyndebourne Mussolini-era Rodelinda, though - as you say - the singing was absolutely fabulous, especially Antonacci. I must watch it again.

Given the number of Handel operas that are seldom, if ever, performed, I wish people would try some of them instead of doing stage versions of oratorios like Saul (a wonderful piece, but that's not the point).