Rodrigo Commentary

Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria [Rodrigo] [Autumn, 1707, Florence, Theatro Cocomero]

[The recording referred to below is

Rodrigo [autumn, 1707]
Gloria Banitelli; Sandrine Piau; Elena Cecchi Fedi; Rufis 
Müller; Roberta Invernizzi; Caterina Calvi; Il Complesso
Barocco; Alan Curtis; Virgin Veritas; Virgin Classics 724354589720]

[The system of asterisks reflects the author’s appreciation of the arias, etc –

* = noteworthy; ** = excellent; *** = outstanding]


References in these notes to ‘D&K’ are to Winton Dean and John Merrill Knapp’s masterful account of the operas, Handel's Operas 1704 - 1726 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987)

 Highlights:
Act I (17/11/07)
‘Pugneran con noi le stelle’ [Disk 1 track 4] (**) – based on material from Almira, used again in Rinaldo
‘Nasce il sol, e l’aura vola’ (***) [Disk  1 track 6] [‘Handel paints the moods of the weather [...] not those of the singer’ D&K]
‘In mano al mio sposo’ (***) [Disk 1 track 14]
‘Stragi, morti, sangue, ed armi’ (**)[Disk 1 track 18] – adapted and developed for Radamisto 
‘Vanne in campo’ (***) [Disk 1 track 24] – from Almira [the aria ‘has a pleasantly enlarged ritornello after the A section, developing a cadence that occurs first in the voice part and was to haunt Handel all his life’ D&K; see ‘Where’er you walk’]


Act II (18/11/07)
‘Fra le spine’ (**) [Disk 1 track 28] – used again in Agrippina (’Tu ben degno’), Giulio Cesare (‘Scorta siate’), Tamerlano and Berenice.
‘Parto, crudel, sì parto’ (*) [Disk 1 track 34]
‘Fredde ceneri d’amor’ (*) [Disk 2 track 2]
’Siete assai superbe, o stelle’ (**) [Disk 2 track 3] – used again in Agrippina.
‘Empio fato, e fiera sorte’ (***) [Disk 2 track 5] [‘the greatest tragic aria Handel ha yet produced’, D&K]
‘Dolce amor che mi consola’ (***) [Disk 2 track 11] [‘already a borrowing [this] was to find lasting fame and subtler treatment in Agrippina (‘Ingannata’) and Il pastor fido (‘Di Goder’). The exquisite tune is out of place in the mouth of this graceless tyrant.’ D&K]
‘Sì, che lieta goderò’ (**) [Disk 2 track 13]
’Su, all’armi’ (*) [Disk 2 track 15]

Act III (18/11/07)
‘Perché viva il caro sposo’ [Disk 2 track 23] (***)
Spirti fieri’[Disk 2 track 25] (**)
‘Il dolce foco mio’[Disk 2 track 31] (**)
‘Prendi l’alma e prendi il core’[Disk 2 track 33] (**)


Comments
Handel’s first fully Italian opera, and again a repository of later themes, motifs, phrases and melodies. As such it is full of wonderful music, but more in the anticipation of later developments than in execution. Most notable, as pointed out by Dean and Knapp, is the impropriety of giving so many beautiful, elegant, charming tunes to such a bloody crew of vengeful nobles. Scene vii of Act III is particularly revealing in this sense. Within the space of two arias the two violent rebels sing the elegant and sweet arias ‘Allor, che sorge’ and ‘Il dolce foco mio’ (the latter later perfected in a much better context, the ‘chamber’ opera Flavio (‘Ricordati, mio ben’). D&K aptly note the theme of the opera, with the lovely ‘Nasce il sol, e l’aura vola’, where the similes of weather are perfectly, beautifully captured, but for a woman who has lost everything. Also obvious are the vast tracts of recitative, as if the music does not have the energy to carry the narrative. There are also some bizarre ‘throwbacks’, as in the decidedly Elizabethan ‘Cosi m’alletti’. Clearly Handel has not yet mastered the suiting of the subject to the form. But the forms are preparing themselves for some wonderful later scenes!