Alcina
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Alcina (HWV 34) is a 1735 opera by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', a work set to music in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he had acquired a year later during his travels in Italy. Partly altered for better conformity, the story was originally taken from Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando furioso (like those of the Handel operas Orlando and Ariodante). The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance: these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé.
Key facts
- Opera.composer
- George Frideric Handel
- Opera.image
- Georg Friedrich Händel - Alcina title page of the libretto - London 1735.png
- Opera.image_upright
- 0.8
- Opera.caption
- Title page of the libretto
- Opera.language
- Italian
- Opera.based_on
- Libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina''
- Opera.premiere_location
- Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 7 more facts
- catalog code
- 34
- Commons category
- Alcina (Händel)
- title
- Alcina
- inception
- 1735-00-00
- date of first performance
- 1735-04-16
- number of parts of this work
- 3
- publication date
- 1800-00-00
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~13 min read
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Performance history
- Roles
- Synopsis
- Prologue
- Act 1
- Act 2
- Act 3
- Audio recordings
- Video recordings
- References
- External links
Alcina (HWV 34) is a 1735 opera by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', a work set to music in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he had acquired a year later during his travels in Italy. Partly altered for better conformity, the story was originally taken from Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando furioso (like those of the Handel operas Orlando and Ariodante). The opera contains several musical sequences with opportunity for dance: these were composed for dancer Marie Sallé.
==Performance history== Alcina was composed for Handel's first season at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. It premiered on 16 April 1735. Like the composer's other works in the opera seria genre, Alcina fell into obscurity; after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig in 1928.