Monday Evening, February 17, 2020, at 7:30 The Juilliard School presents Juilliard415 Juilliard Opera Nicholas McGegan, Conductor Ophelie Wolf, Stage Director GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) Rinaldo (concert version) Cast (in order of appearance) Goffredo Maggie Reneé Valdman Almirena Hyoyoung Kim Rinaldo Karin Osbeck Argante Erik van Heyningen Armida Jessica Niles Donna Song Hee Lee Supertitles Operator: Celeste Montemarano Supertitles Creation: Cori Ellison, Celeste Montemarano Orchestral Preparation: Robert Mealy, Jeffrey Grossman Vocal Music Preparation: Kenneth Merrill, Jeffrey Grossman Language Preparation: Corradina Caporello Rehearsal Pianist: Michał Biel Performing edition devised by Robert Mealy, created by Peter Jones Performance time: approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, including an intermission Juilliard’s full-scholarship Historical Performance program was established and endowed in 2008 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner. Juilliard415 is grateful to the Sidney J. Weinberg, Jr. Foundation for providing additional support for its performance season. Juilliard’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts was established in 2010 by the generous support of Ellen and James S. Marcus. This performance is part of Juilliard Opera, a program dedicated to the education and training of future generations of singers at Juilliard. Major support for Juilliard Opera is provided by the International Foundation for Arts and Culture and its Chairman, Dr. Haruhisa Handa. Alice Tully Hall Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. Juilliard About the Program and when in 1714 his patron the Elector ascended to the throne of England as By James M. Keller George I, Handel established himself full- time in London. During the next 27 years Rinaldo Handel would be enmeshed in the high- GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL stakes vicissitudes of London’s musical Born: February 23, 1685, in Halle, Saxony, life, especially in the worlds of opera Germany and oratorio. He composed and produced Died: April 14, 1759, in London nearly 40 operas on Italian texts for various companies in London, and, especially after He was a superb keyboard soloist and 1740, 25 oratorios, some of which are so composed music for venues as diverse theatrical in their plots as to qualify fully as as elegant salons and mighty cathedrals; “dramas without staging.” but at heart, George Frideric Handel was a creature of the stage, and he could infuse “The report of his uncommon abilities theatrical flavor into whatever he wrote. had been conveyed to England before his arrival, through various channels,” wrote For most of his career, Handel’s theatrical Handel’s first biographer, John Mainwaring. aspirations lay in opera, and he triumphed “Many of the nobility were impatient for an particularly as a composer and impresario of Opera of his composing. To gratify this Italian opera in London, his adopted city. He eagerness, Rinaldo, the first he made had received his earliest musical instruction in England, was finished in a fortnight’s in his native town of Halle, not far northwest time.” Handel achieved that impressive of Leipzig. In 1703 he left for the busier pace partly by repurposing nearly half musical capital of Hamburg, where he the score from music he had written befriended Georg Philipp Telemann (then earlier in Italy. Some of those numbers still a student) and gained a position in the underwent considerable reworking; others municipal opera house, initially as a second were assumed practically unaltered. One violinist, later as a harpsichordist. In 1706 he example of the latter is the act two aria was off to Italy, a magnet for any composer “Lascia ch’io piango.” In that form, it at the turn of the 18th century and especially became one of the most famous of all for one attracted to the larger forms of Handel arias, although it had been born as vocal music. Rome became his base of “Lascia la spina” in Handel’s 1707 oratorio operations for several years, during which Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. With he became acquainted with the Who’s Who a new text grafted on, what had been a of the Italian musical establishment and number advising a would-be lover to “avoid made a mark with a number of oratorios, the thorn, pluck the rose” became the motets, and even operas. more mournful lament “let me weep over my cruel fate.” Following his stint in Italy, Handel returned briefly to Germany, where in 1710 he The libretto, also quickly prepared, was by assumed the position of Kapellmeister to Giacomo Rossi, who apparently worked Prince Ernst August, Elector of Hanover. from a draft prepared by Aaron Hill, briefly But his time in Germany was reaching the manager of the Queen’s Theatre, its end. Handel first visited England the where the piece was mounted. (Hill following year, to oversee the production of was sacked after the third performance, his opera Rinaldo at the Queen’s Theatre. probably for unbridled expenses incurred His ensuing visits grew more frequent, in mounting Rinaldo.) The ultimate source Juilliard was Torquato Tasso’s immensely popular Argante. Rinaldo falls for the ploy at first La Gerusalemme liberata, an epic poem but soon sees through it. Argante is not so published in 1581 that offers a largely clever; he continues his romantic pursuit fictional account of the First Crusade, of the woman he takes to be Almirena but which took place in the late 11th century. (as Rinaldo knows but he does not) is really Armida. Armida, being Argante’s mistress, The work therefore involves a moral and is furious when he pitches woo to … well, military conflict between the Christians to her, but he thinks she’s Almirena. and the Muslims. The very idea may make us nervous in our enlightened times, but in On to act three and the unknotting of a 16th-century Italy or 18th-century England confusing situation. Armida, in her castle, the superiority of Christians over Muslims is about to kill Almirena, but Goffredo was taken for granted—plus it served as arrives just in time and manages to free an expedient metaphor for the dominance her. Rinaldo gets back to work and leads of European monarchs over non-European the crusading army to capture Jerusalem, ones at a time when Europe was fixated defeating the forces of Armida and Argante, on maintaining and expanding empires. who have put their personal contretemps behind them. Rinaldo and Goffredo are In act one, we meet Rinaldo (mezzo- reunited. Armida and Argante are captured soprano, sung by a castrato in Handel’s and they vow to convert to Christianity, time, though assuredly not in ours), who Armida relinquishing her magical powers is a heroic knight in the crusaders’ army. by extinguishing her infernal flame with The army’s general, Goffredo (contralto), holy waters and by breaking her wand has consented to let his daughter Almirena in two. The two couples—Rinaldo and (soprano) marry Rinaldo once Jerusalem Almirena; Armida and Argante—look is captured. On the opposing side, the forward to Christian, wedded bliss. Saracen king of Jerusalem, Argante (bass), envisions defeat and arranges a three-day The premiere production proved very ceasefire to devise a plan. He summons successful, receiving 15 performances in Armida (Queen of Damascus, his mistress, its first season. It is easy to understand and, conveniently, a sorceress). They why. Apart from satisfying hunger for a decide to gain the military advantage novel work by the recently arrived Handel, by separating Rinaldo from his army. To the piece boasted an admired cast, a accomplish this, Armida uses her powers spectacular production (thunder, lightning, to abduct Almirena, upon which Rinaldo a chariot drawn by fire-belching dragons), will absent himself from the army to and a vibrant instrumental component (with capture her back. recorders suggesting birdcalls and the military ambience enlivened by trumpets In act two, Rinaldo and Goffredo set and drums). It became the talk of London, out to regain Almirena, but Armida is a its status doubtless boosted by write-ups in step ahead of them; she has two sirens the newly founded satirical newspaper, the separate Rinaldo from his friend and Spectator, where it was pilloried for being deliver him to her palace. There, she an opera in Italian presented to English makes romantic moves on him. When audiences who did not comprehend that he spurns her advances, she tries Plan B, language (it was, in fact, the first such) and assuming the form of Almirena, who in for certain extravagances of the production. the meantime has been imprisoned and An essay by Spectator cofounder Joseph has rebuffed the two-timing advances of Addison took particular note of the flocks Juilliard of live sparrows set a-winging in the garden are not very clearly documented, the scene of Rinaldo. For example: “There have 1711, 1717, and 1731 versions can be been so many Flights of them let loose in determined in considerable detail. They this Opera, that it is feared the House will differ quite a lot, even to the extent of never get rid of them; and that in other a character being omitted, roles being Plays they may make their Entrance in very reduced, vocal parts being transposed to wrong and improper Scenes, so as to be new keys, numbers being replaced, and seen flying in a Lady’s Bed-Chamber, or recitatives being rewritten. pearching upon a King’s Throne; besides the Inconveniencies which the Heads Tonight’s performance follows in that of the Audience may sometimes suffer Handelian tradition, largely following the from them.” 1717 version (which eliminates the 1711 character of Goffredo’s brother Eustazio, Further performances ensued, still at the his arias now re-assigned to Goffredo and Queen’s Theatre, in 1713, 1714–15, and his interjections in the finale being taken 1717; and then in 1731 it was revived yet by Almirena).