Handel's Operas, 1704-1726

This first of the classic two-volume survey of Handel's operas was first published in 1987 and reissued in a revised paperback edition in 1995. In 2009 it was brought back into print in a year which has seen numerous productions and recordings of the operas and which marks the 250th anniversary of Handel's death. Their revival in the modern theatre - not a single opera was staged or performed anywhere between 1754 and 1920 - has been among the most remarkable phenomena in the history of the art, and is due in no small measure to the painstaking research of Dean and Knapp in volume one, and Dean himself in volume two.

This first volume devotes a chapter to each of Handel's first seventeen operas, offering a full synopsis and study of the libretto, extensive discussions of the music, a performance history, and a comparison of the different versions of the opera. In addition there are several general chapters on the historical and stylistic context of Handel's operatic career to 1726, and a number of Appendices including a list of performances during Handel's life and the location of librettos, Handel's borrowings, Handel's singers, and modern stage productions up to the end of 1993.

CONTENIDO:

List of illustrations
Abbreviations
Note on sources

1. Handel as opera composer
2. Performance practice
3. The German background: Opera in Hamburg
4. "Almira, Köenigin von Castilien"
5. The lost Hamburg operas
6. The Italian background, 1706-1709
7. "Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria (Rodrigo)"
8. "Agrippina"
9. The English background: Italian opera in London, 1705-1710
10. The first London period, 1711-1717
11. "Rinaldo"
12. "Il pastor fido"
13. "Teseo"
14. "Silla"
15. "Amadigi di Gaula"
16. The Royal Academy to the arrival of Faustina Bordoni, 1719-1726
17. "Radamisto"
18. "Muzio Scevola"
19. "Floridante"
20. "Ottone rè di Germania"
21. "Flavio rè de' Longobardi"
22. "Giulio Cesare in Egitto"
23. "Tamerlano"
24. "Rodelinda"
25. "Scipione"

Appendices
A. Structural analysis
B. Instrumentation
C. Performances during Handel's life
D. Borrowings
E. Handel's singers
F. Modern stage productions to the end of 1993
G. Index of Italian first lines
H. Short bibliography

Index of Handel's works
General index