Concert performance based on the Halle Handel edition
Musical direction: Riccardo Novaro
Soloists: Franco Fagioli (Tolomeo), Giulia Semenzato (Seleuce), Andrea Mastroni (Araspe), Giuseppina Bridelli (Elisa), Christophe Dumaux (Alessandro) // Il Giardino Armonico // Basel Chamber Orchestra
Modern premiere in the reconstructed original orchestration in co-production with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and Il Giardino Armonico
Concert introduction: 6.00 pm // Handel House, Glass Hall // Admission free - free choice of seats // Duration approx. 30 minutes
With the kind support of KATHI Rainer Thiele GmbH
65, 45, 30 €
Tolomeo is one of Handel’s least performed operas and differs greatly from many of his other musical dramas. One interesting anecdote about the genesis of Tolomeo, re d’Egitto is that it was literally the last opera performed before the close of London’s first opera academy, of which Handel was the director, and starred the two rival prima donnas, Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni. Handel and his librettist wrote an opera which, besides its realistic plot, stands out by virtue of its pared-down staging and musical interpretation, and its focus on the essential. Tolemeo was not a popular success during its first run, owing perhaps in part to this spartan approach. Only when it was reprised in 1730 was its appeal much greater – thanks among other things to major changes to the score, a larger cast and arias either newly composed for the freshly engaged soloists or taken from other works. It is in this special 1730 version that Tolemeo is presented.