Georg Friedrich Händel: Rodelinda Regina de' Longobardi HWV 19: Mixed Choir:

Rodelinda Regina de' Longobardi HWV 19; Opera in three acts.After Giulio Cesare and Tamerlano Rodelinda is the third masterly opera that Handel composed between December 1723 and January 1725. The words were written by Nicola Haym the author of many other Handel librettos. The first performance took place at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket London on 13 February 1725. Rodelinda thrives entirely on the ethical supremacy of conjugal love and thus prefigures the great operas by Gluck and Beethoven on the same subject. The plot is taken from the history of the Lombard royalty. Oskar Hagen’s revival of Rodelinda in 1920 ushered in the modern Handel operamovement.The work forms the climax to a series of dramatic masterpieces that includes Handel’s most significant operas. Handel returned to Rodelinda on two occasions in December 1725 and in May 1731. Many far-reaching changes were necessary owing to the different skills of the new singers. For example Handel wrote three new arias and a duet for the first revival. Yet the changes he made for this performance doubtless to accommodate the needs and wishes of the singers also improve the work’s dramatic substance.Our vocal score is based on the Urtext of the full score published in the Halle Handel Edition (II/16) and reproduces the various alternative readings and versions in an appendix.Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition.Full score (BA4064) & vocal score (BA4064-90) available for sale.Performance material (BA4064-72) available for hire

Handel’s opera Rodelinda was first presented in 1725 in London at the peak of the composer’s operatic production for the Royal Academy of Music. This aria composed for castrato has been transposed from its original key of E to G and arranged for three Voices SSA without Handelian ornamentation. The aria has frequently been performed and recorded in its English incarnation as Art Thou Troubled.

Based on the Bärenreiter vocal scores the three volumes in this series contain some of Handel's best-known arias for mezzo-soprano/contralto tenor and bass together with some less well-known numbers of equally high musical quality. The arias in these volumes contain works from Handel's thirty-year period as an opera composer in London and give an impression of the variety of this extensive repertoire. The arias placed in the chronological order of the operas display various distinctive technical features and are mostly presented with the pre-ceding recitative or in a few cases in the context of an entire scene. The forewords by DonaldBurrows contain detailed notes on Handel's singers and on the context of the arias of the operas. Mio cor (Goffredo Rinaldo)Sorge nel petto (Goffredo Rinaldo)Pena tiranna io sento al core (Dardano Amadigi)Quando mai spietata sorte (Zenobia Radamisto)Già che morir non posso (Zenobia Radamisto)Fatemi o Cieli almen (Zenobia Radamisto)Deggio dunque oh Dio lasciarti(Zenobia Radamisto)Che colpa è la mia (Teodata Flavio Re de’ Longobardi)Priva son d’ogni conforto (Cornelia Giulio Cesare in Egitto)Par che mi nasca in seno (Irene Tamerlano)No che sei tanto costante (Irene Tamerlano)Crudel più non son io (Irene Tamerlano)Quanto più fiera tempesta freme (Eduige Rodelinda Regina de’ Longobardi)Orgogliosetto va l’augelletto (Matilde Lotario)Arma lo sguardo (Matilde Lotario)S’è delitto trar da’ lacci (Idelberto Lotario)Per tutto il timore (Valentiniano Ezio)Verdi allori (Medoro Orlando)Vorrei poterti amar (Medoro Orlando)Se l’inganno sortisce felice (Polinesso Ariodante)Dover giustizia amor (Polinesso Ariodante)Or che siete speranze tradite (Amastre Serse)Anima infida tradita io sono (Amastre Serse)Cagion son io del mio dolore (Amastre Serse)Meglio in voi col mio partire (Arsamene Serse)Non so se sia la speme (Arsamene Serse)Quella che tutta fé (Arsamene Serse)Sì la voglio e la

This sweet simple octavo from Handel's Rodelinda works well for a children's choir. It is a secular Baroque classic singing the praises of music. From our Jean Ashworth Bartle Choral series