Almira

Opera in three acts-“Almira” Handel’s first opera was well received when premiered in 1705 at the Theater am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. The director was Reinhard Keiser who remarkably had himself already set Friedrich Christian Feustking’s text to music. The role of Fernando was sung by Johann Mattheson. The translation used by Handel leaves several Italian arias in their original language resulting in a delightful mixture of German and Italian.The opera which after sundry entangled romances ends in the wedding of three couples is characterised by exuberant scenes: the procession at Almira’scrowning ceremony a duel a prison scene and a masked-ball involving the three continents Europe Africa and Asia.The vocal score to “Almira” by George Frideric Handel brings about a small sensation: Whilst conducting a reenactment of this work in 1732 Georg Philipp Telemann removed the Aria no. 28 “Ingrato spietato” from his conducting score. Since then this aria has been deemed lost. Due to necessity only the edited vocal text devoid of any music was presented in the 1994 volume of the “Halle Handel Edition”.Thanks to a recently discovered contemporary manuscript copy from the beginning of the 18th century which was found in the music library of the Mariengymnasium in Jever this aria has now been made available to performers for the first time in this new vocal score edition. Previous to this the corresponding pages could only be seen as a facsimile in an article of the “Göttinger Händel-Beiträge”.Now the aria can be performed again. Furthermore with the help of this new source missing measures in the basso continuo which had initially been completed by the editor of the “Halle Handel Edition” volume could be reconstructed from the basso continuo part of the Bellante aria “Ich brenne zwar” (no. 71).- Urtext edition based on the “Halle Handel Edition”- Original German and Italian text with a German translation of the Italian arias

Händel, Georg Friedrich
La Bellezza ravveduta nel trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno HWV 46a
Oratorio in two Parts
Rome 1707
- Urtext edition based on the “Halle Handel Edition” (HHA)
- With literal German and English translations
- Comprehensive Foreword (Ger/Eng)
- Idiomatic uncluttered piano reduction
Handel composed his first Italian oratorio “La Bellezza ravveduta nel trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” in 1707. It is based on an allegorical moral libretto written by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili who also commissioned this work.
Disinganno (Illumination) and Tempo (Time) try to get the young, beautiful and frivolous Bellezza (Beauty) to recognise the true values of life and to act accordingly. The audience accompanies Bellezza in her spiritual development, in which she increasingly distances herself from Piacere (Pleasure) and listens more and more to Tempo and Disinganno.
The oratorio contains some of the most beautiful music Handel ever composed. This includes the enchanting aria “Lascia la spina”, in which he uses the music of the sarabande from the opera “Almira”, composed in Hamburg in 1704, and which then achieved immortal fame in “Rinaldo” (1711) as “Lascia ch’io pianga”. / Partitions classique / Vocale - chorale / Choeur et ensemble vocal / BARENREITER

This volume contains some attractive yet almost totally unfamiliar keyboard pieces by Handel five of them here published for the first time. Seven are original keyboard compositions three are arrangements by the composer himself of opera arias and the 'Folio' is completed by a movement which occurs in orchestral form in Handel's first opera Almira and by the famous Air from the Water Music. Edited by Terence Best.

This study score is based on the critical edition of ?The Barber Of Seville? edited by Patricia B. Brauner and published in 2008 as part of the series ?Works of Gioachino Rossini?. But who needs a new critical edition of ?The Barber Of Seville?? The opera has been performed in theatres throughout the world since 1816 and has never been absent from the repertoire. There are two reasons for a critical new edition: firstly none of the early editions satisfy modern demands for a scholarly-critical edition. Secondly there is a wealth of previously unpublished material relating to this opera of great interest to both scholars andperformers.Thus the famous overture which Rossini had already used in his earlier opera ?Aureliano in Palmira? differs noticeably from earlier editions in many places. The new edition enables performers to perform the overture either in its original scoring (as in ?Aureliano in Palmira?) which includes two Flutes two Oboes and Timpani or in the scoring for the subsequent opera ?The Barber Of Seville? (with just one flute one oboe and no timpani).A series of appendices contain music and information which have been included in no other edition of the opera to date.- Takes into account all original sources also including five manuscripts with Rossini?s autograph ornamentation.- Takes into consideration the full extent of Rossini?s personal notational characteristics.- With a detailed foreword (Eng/Ital)

The new reduction of Il barbiere di Siviglia is based on the critical edition of the full score by Alberto Zedda that republished in 2009 appeared in turn as a fully revised edition - in the light of new sources and updated philological criteria -of the historic and pioneering critical edition of 1969. The 1969 Barbiere di Siviglia was based on the autograph and on manuscript and printed sources still considered primary: the copies from Giovanni Battista Cencetti (now kept at the New York Public Library at the Bibliomediateca of Santa CeciliaAcademy in Rome at the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma and at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris) the copies from Naples Florence the main score and vocal scores of the time the fi rst printed libretto many manuscript copies ofAureliano in Palmira work in which Zedda recognized the source of the Symphony of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. To these in 2009 were added all the materials found and transcribed by Zedda after the publication of the volume of 1969.In the Appendices of this edition are published for the fi rst time in vocal score all the new materials added between 1969 and 2009 among them: the aria added for Rosina ?Ah se è ver? (Appendix II) an alternative aria for Rosina for the lessonscene ?La mia pace la mia calma? (Appendix III) an alternative aria for Bartolo ?Manca un foglio? (Appendix IV) and the vocal autograph variants for NN. 5 7 16 (Appendix I).In addition to the musical texts there are - both in Italian and in English - an historical Introduction (in the first volume) and a Critical Commentary to the musical text (in the second volume).