Amici Veneziani GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL RODELINDA, REGINA DE’ LONGOBARDI HWV 19 Libretto: Nicola Francesco Haym 8 | Se ’l mio duol non è si forte Rodelinda (Act III, Scene 4) 6:48 RINALDO HWV 7a Libretto: Giacomo Rossi ATHALIA HWV 52 1 | Furie terribili! Armida (Act I, Scene 5) 1:59 Libretto: Samuel Humphreys 9 | My vengeance awakes me Athalia (Part II, Scene 2) 4:29 GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO HWV 17 Libretto: Nicola Francesco Haym SAUL HWV 53 2 | Piangerò la sorte mia Cleopatra (Act III, Scene 3) 7:00 Libretto: Charles Jennens 0 | Author of peace Merab (Act II, Scene 8) 4:13 LA RESURREZIONE HWV 47 Libretto: Carlo Sigismondo Capece DEIDAMIA HWV 42 3 | Disserratevi, o porte d’Averno Angelo (Part I) 5:30 Libretto: Paolo Antonio Rolli q | M’hai resa infelice Deidamia (Act III, Scene 2) 4:38 AMADIGI DI GAULA HWV 11 Libretto: Nicola Francesco Haym (?) LOTARIO HWV 26 4 | Ah! spietato! Melissa (Act I, Scene 4) 7:00 Libretto: Giacomo Rossi after Antonio Salvi w | Scherza in mar la navicella Adelaide (Act I, Scene 10) 6:16 IL TRIONFO DEL TEMPO E DEL DISINGANNO HWV 46a Libretto: Benedetto Pamphili 9 GERMAN ARIAS 5 | Come nembo che fugge col vento Piacere (Part II) 6:02 e | No. 4: Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle HWV 205 5:24 SERSE HWV 40 THE TRIUMPH OF TIME AND TRUTH HWV 71 Libretto: Silvio Stampiglia & Nicolò Minato Libretto: Thomas Morell after Benedetto Pamphili 6 | Ombra mai fu Serse (Act I, Scene 1) 3:15 r | Guardian angels Beauty (Part III) 6:48 TESEO HWV 9 RINALDO HWV 7a Libretto: Nicola Francesco Haym Libretto: Giacomo Rossi 7 | Morirò, ma vendicata Medea (Act V, Scene 1) 4:40 t | Lascia ch’io pianga Almirena (Act II, Scene 4) 5:48 2 Mio caro Händel “HANDEL IS THE GREATEST COMPOSER EVER TO HAVE LIVED. I WOULD BARE MY HEAD AND KNEEL BESIDE HIS GRAVE.” »Händel ist der größte Komponist, der je gelebt hat. Ich würde mein Haupt entblößen und an seinem Grabe niederknien.« Ludwig van Beethoven My Dear Handel, hat awe and humility you inspire in me! I bow before your genius and feel as close to you as You left for Hamburg when you were eighteen, a trip paid for out of your pocket money. Your any kindred soul could do. We know each other in a mysterious way, which is why I press first opera, Almira, was a great success – it includes the famous Sarabande. But it almost cost youW tightly to my heart, dear George Frideric. May I speak to you in more intimate terms? I don’t you your life when your dear “colleague” Johann Mattheson – one hell of a chap as a composer think you’d object to this. and singer – must have been so jealous of you that he challenged you to a duel. Only one of the buttons on your jacket deflected the blow from the tip of his sword. A SITUATION FIT FOR It was you who prepared my path in life, you who are my guardian angel and my idol. With this AN OPERA! album I want to thank you for everything that you have done for me. Your music opened up the world of classical music to me. Your arias accompany my life and cast their glow over the great stages of this world. I FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU WHEN I WAS FOURTEEN after my school of music chose me to sing your aria “Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle” at a Christmas concert in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. I felt at once that my voice was perfectly suited to your music. And that your music is Caro Giorgio Federico, perfectly suited to my voice. No effort is required. Quite the opposite: in my throat I can always ou knew of course where music played the most important role, and Rome was curious to feel a sense of wellbeing and flexibility. Your music keeps the voice young, dear George Frideric! get to know “il Signore Sassone”. Scarlatti, Corelli and Caldara – you kept only the very best company.Y For you, Italy was uniquely inspiring. You set out from Halle to conquer the world. You, my Handel, were a true European, a cosmopoli- tan, a gifted linguist adept at dealing with people. You were never in the service of a court or of the The Curia soon took a liking to you: you were a young and attractive virtuoso. “You are greater Church but from your youth you were a noble and independent spirit willing to undertake every than Orpheus,” Cardinal Pamphili waxed enthusiastic, “since you have persuaded my Muse to risk and unwilling to make any compromises, a successful entrepreneur, producer and manager sing.” It was Pamphili who commissioned Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, which turned who even speculated on the London Stock Exchange. You were also a brilliant businessman. out to be your own personal triumph. And you were only twenty-two! It was an oratorio, not an opera, since the Vatican was concerned about public morals. Just to be on the safe side the But what a difficult path you embarked on! Your father was firmly against your becoming a musi- good Cardinal also wrote the libretto, effectively penning a moral sermon that advocated virtue cian. There had never been any musicians in your family. You played the clavichord in secret. Wasn’t and castigated vice. The role of Pleasure (“Piacere”) is one that I first sang in Cologne. And what it your aunt who smuggled this small and soft-toned instrument into your house? Fortunately Duke pleasure it gave me! “I prepare joys for the present moment.” And I am always profoundly moved Johann Adolf of Saxe-Weißenfels heard you play the organ. It is to him that you owe your excellent by your divine aria “Guardian angels” from the later English version of the work – so simple and musical training. beautiful, as if on the threshold of Paradise. It was the same with me. I too sang in secret. But a neighbour heard me and ultimately persuaded YOU WERE A POP STAR LONG BEFORE POP EXISTED. Your aria “Ombra mai fu” my parents to enrol me in the Leipzig Radio Children’s Choir when I was eight. Unfortunately my remains an international hit to this day, with millions of hits on YouTube. You merely “bor- family had neither the money for an instrument nor any interest in acquiring one. But I had my rowed” this piece from Giovanni Bononcini. (I unearthed the original a number of years ago voice. The whole of my training at music school and later when I studied privately was paid for and recorded it as a new discovery.) When people accused you of “data theft”, you replied with out of the money I’d managed to save. Even today I remain very proud of this. an air of self-confidence: “It’s much too good for him; he did not know what to do with it.” Or, in the words of a great connoisseur of music, “Handel took other men’s pebbles and polished them Both of us were twelve when we lost our fathers. It is presumably fate that makes us strong – if into diamonds.” we have to fight for the things we desire. We can achieve this only by drawing on our own inner resources: with love, strength, faith and humility. It is an intense and valuable way of finally harvesting genuine fruit. 4 Dear George Frideric, ou have been my constant companion in life as well as in art. What would I be without you? For you, music was the greatest and perhaps the only thing that mattered. You even told your Ever since your music found its way into my heart and soul, I have been inspired by your king, George II, that you had no time for anything but music. I understand this all too well. Our magic.Y You have always brought me good luck: for my entrance examination at Leipzig’s Acad- greatest love is music because in it we can sense the divine. Music has always consoled me and emy of Music and Drama I chose an aria from Acis and Galatea and was immediately accepted given me strength so that I have never lost sight of meaning in my life. And you, dear Handel, as a student. With you – and with “Piangerò la sorte mia” – people can only be winners. With were often with me on these occasions. Cleopatra’s aria I won no fewer than three times: the examination to decide if I’d train as a soloist or as a chorister, the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Prize and my audition for my first operatic role, Asteria in Tamerlano. HOW I WISH I COULD HAVE HEARD YOU LIVE ON STAGE! I think the way you dealt with “difficult” singers was great. In any case, I would never have threatened to jump on your harpsichord as the tenor Alexander Gordon did after complaining about your accompaniment Dear George Frideric, of one of your arias. As so often, you reacted with irascible fury: “Let me know when you will do that and I will advertise it: for I am sure more people will come to see you jump than hear nd then there is the Englishman in you! You arrived at just the right time: London was then you sing.” the capital of the world, and you had no musical rivals. And you immediately scored the greatestA success of the season with Rinaldo, which you wrote in only two weeks.