tjAIVIOll1 Brooklyn Academy of Music 1997 Spring Season Louise Bourgeios, Hamlet and Ophelia for BAM, 1996, lithograph, 29 1/4")( 41 ~ Amadigi BAM 1997 Spring Season and 135th Anniversary Season are sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. \ The Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board Harvey lichtenstein President & Executive Prooucer presents Amadigi di Gaula Amadis of Gaul, an opera in three acts George Frideric Handel BAM Majestic Theater March 11 , 12, 14 & 15, 1997 at 7,30pm Running time: libretto by an unknown author approximately Adapted from Amadis de Grece by Antoine Houda r de la Motte two hours and twenty Translated and edited by Andrew Jones minutes, including intermission. Opera Theatre Company (Ireland) Conductor seamus Crimmins Director James Conway Designer Neil Irish lighting Designer Simon Corder Arnadigi of Gaul-a famous hero in love with Oriana, Jonathan Peter Kenny Dardano-Pri nce of Thrace, ally of Amadigi, Buddug Verona James Oriana~aughter of the King of the Fortunate Isles, Anne O' Byrne Melissa- an Enchantress, in love with Amadigi, Majella Cullagh Orgando-visiting God of Love , Nicholas Frisch london Baroque Sinfonia leader Stephen Bull Continuo Alastair Ross (harpsicord), Gabriel Amherst (cello) British Airways is the officia l airline for th is presentation. Amadigi takes place with the assistance of the British Council, Allied Irish Ban ks Group pic, and the Cultura l Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland. Additional support for BAM Opera: The Peter Jay Sharp Fund for Opera and Theater, and The Shubert Foundation, Inc. First performance on May 25, 1715 at the King's Theatre , Haymarket, london First Irish performance on May 4, 1996 at the Theatre Royal, Wexford photo: Calm Henry london Baroque Stephen Bull Nicola Cleminson Philip Gibbon Sinfonia Leader Viola Bassoon Joanna Parker Gabriel Amherst Stephen Mason Violin I Violincello Trumpet Chizuko Ishikawa Antonia Bakewell Alastair Ross Violin I Double Bass Continuo Ben Sansom Mark Radcliffe Violin /I Oboe I / Recorder leah Nelson Althea Ifeka Violin /I Oboe /I / Recorder Technical Staff Production Manager- Paul Tucker Stage Manager- Paula Tierney Master Carpenter- David Butler Staging & lighting Technician- Kevin Treacy BAM titles formatted by Michael Panayos projected by David Rebhun Act 1 Amadigi, a famous hero, is in love with Oriana, but he and Oriana are sep­ arately detained by the enchantress Melissa. Amadigi proposes to his ally, Dardano, that they escape by night from the garden of Melissa. When Dardano reproaches him for not returning Melissa's love, Amadigi shows him the picture of Oriana; Dardano is shocked, for it is the picture of the woman he too loves, and the sudden bitterness of his rivalry sends him secretly off to warn Melissa. Amadigi begs the night to help his plan, but he is con­ founded by the arrival of Melissa. She threatens him, but he is undaunted; alone, she admits she cannot kill the man she loves. A porch of flames blocks the entrance to the tower where Oriana is held captive. Having defeated a host of monsters, Amadigi makes ready to confront the flames. Dardano reads an inscription there which states that only the most valiant will conquer the obstacle; he confesses that he is a rival for Oriana's love, but Amadigi dismisses him and passes through the flames. Dardano is foiled in his own attempt, and in anger he goes off to fetch Melissa. Oriana and Amadigi are joyously reunited, but their escape is once again blocked by Melissa and Dardano. Oriana is imprisoned, and Amadigi is left alone in grief. intermission Act 2 In a garden, Amadigi sits by the well of True Love "whose waters faithful lovers undeceive;" he is horrified by a vision of Oriana caressing Dardano, and he faints. Melissa, who engineered the vision, has Oriana brought on. Oriana believes Amadigi dead, and takes his sword to kill herself. Amadigi awakens, denounces her faithlessness, and she departs in anger. Melissa stops him from killing himself in despair, but he still rejects her love and sneers at her tortures. Melissa then contrives to make Amadigi witness Oriana making love to Dardano; magically she gives the lamenting Dardano the appearance of Amadigi, and Oriana is seduced by him while the real Amadigi witnesses in secrecy. Dardano is triumphant, but Amadigi pursues him and kills him. Melissa is furious that her plans have failed, and she reveals her deception to Oriana, threatening her with hellfire. pause Act 3 Melissa's passion increases as it is spurned. In her dungeon, Amadigi and Oriana are resigned to die, but each pleads for the other with the sorceress. Melissa is going to wound Amadigi, but cannot; she then intends to stab Oriana, but decides that she would do better to prolong the agony. She calls the ghost of Oardano up from Hell; instead of assisting in her revenge, the Ghost announces that the Gods will protect the lovers. Melissa finds herself prevented from killing Oriana; in despair, she wounds herself, falls and dies, still looking for one kind word from Amadigi. The fortunate lovers triumph. 11 Amadigi is the third Handel opera Opera Theatre rejections from Amadigi does she assume transient Company has produced. Both OTC versions of majesty in the Act II finale, fulfilled in her death Tamber/ane (1992 & 1995) grappled wilh Ihe scene. heroic tragedy, and in Flavio (1994) we found a Amadigi and Oriana are the more problematic charming semi seria with a distinctly earthy bal­ to portray for their apparently blameless heroism; ance of sentiments. to love and be loved in return is a less interesting First performed in 1715, Amadigi is a magic dramatic situation than to love and be spurned. opera . Only four years before, Handel had enjoyed Their relationship develops slowly and certainly a stupendous success with Rinaldo, another magic from the simple code of a cherished image (the opera featuring a lovesick enchantress, and in picture of a pretty girl) and the raptures of their 1713 the success of his Teseo was due in no Act I meeting in the tower through the yearning small part to the magic spells and vivid charac­ and loneliness of their trials in the middle of the terization of the sorceress Medea. opera and the peevish quarrel which ensues, to The opera was extremely successful, and was the quiet, poignant harmonies of their Act III duet, revived in 1716 and 1717 before an ~arrange­ matured by suffering. True their quarrel is less ment" by Reinhard Keiser was taken into reper­ weighty, their separation and reunion less sus­ tory in Hamburg in 1717. It is an extraordinary penseful than the jagged intervention of the "vil­ opera in many ways, not least because the roles lains." But the villains are villains only because are all scored for high voice. In Handel's original they are unloved; so the clearer course of the production at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, the heroes and lovers is at least as important-though title role was taken by a man, the celebrated it be simple and honest- if the opera is really Neapolitan castrato Nicolo Grimaldi (Nicolini), about romantic love in all its forms. and the other alto role of Dardano by a woman, This is the path we have found through the Diana Vico (although in the 1717 revival Dardano opera, just as paternal affection and family rela­ was sung by the castrato Antonio Maria Bernacchi). tions indicated approaches to our other Handel Elisabetta Pilotti Schiavonetti, Handel's Melissa, productions. Romantic love is, rarely, a straight­ had also portrayed the spurned sorceresses in forward course strong enough to ignore obstacles Rinaldo and Teseo; Anastasia Robinson and then and resist enchantment; it is also a pitiless sen­ Caterina Ga lerati sang Oriana. Splendid effects timent which forges illusions, which temporarily complimented a rich, varied score; near the end inhibits self-knowledge, and which can take hold of the century the writer Charles Burney still like no other, driving the lover to bleak despair or maintained that Amadigi contained ~more inven­ violent anger and jealousy. Each scene of Amadigi tion, variety and goOO composition, than in any depicts a different facet of romantic love, just as one of the musical dramas of Handel which I have each aria draws a different facet of character. Not yet carefully and critically examined. " surprisingly, the Act III messages from realms above What has impressed me most about Amadigi­ and below Melissa's house of deception result in and indeed Flavia and Tamer/ano, even though the extreme manifestation of romantic love: they belong to different operatic genres- is the Melissa's abject suicide, terrifyingly lonely, and vividness and authenticity of the emotions depict­ the unquestioning jubilation of the hero Amadigi. ed . Melissa and Oardano are unrequited lovers, and their scenes chart the way in which the -James Conway agony of rejection bewilders and perverts them: they are profoundly characterized, their surface bravado and clenched anguish carefully measured. Unlike Alcina- the great enchantress to whom she is too often compared- Melissa is not loved by the object of her love, and never even able to enchant him into loving her. Indeed, there is little evidence that her magic has staying power. 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