The source material for this week’s Sunday Opera (3/29 3:00 p.m.) has been used in well over 70 different projects. In the past, we heard one treatment by Giovanni Simone Mayr in his opera “Ginevra di Scozia,” but this time, we’re turning to one of Handel’s “Italian operas” that he wrote for London in 1735, “Ariodante.” Our recording comes from 1978 and features a stellar cast in this opera that is a tale of love, betrayal, and redemption, and it explores themes of jealousy, deception, and the triumph of good over evil.
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The uncredited libretto comes from a story by Antonio Salvi that was, in turn, based on three of the sections of Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem, “Orlando Furioso.”
The Scottish princess Ginevra (Edith Mathis) and the Italian knight Ariodante (Dame Janet Baker) are deeply in love, but their relationship is threatened by Polinesso (James Bowman), the Duke of Albany. Polinesso, consumed by jealousy, devises a cruel plan to ruin Ginevra's reputation and separate her from Ariodante. He manipulates Dalinda (Norma Burrowes), one of Ginevra's ladies-in-waiting who is in love with Polinesso, into pretending to be Ginevra for an arranged assignation that was to be witnessed by Ariodante (and also his brother, Lurcanio (David Rendall).
Polinesso hopes to come between Ginevra and Ariodante so that he can marry her to eventually become king.
Ariodante, misled by the deception, believes Ginevra is unfaithful and attempts suicide, but is stopped in time by Lurcanio.
Ginevra is accused of adultery and is sentenced to be burned at the stake unless a champion defends her honor. Lurcanio, believing that Ariodante is dead due to misinformation delivered by Odoardo (Alexander Oliver), appears at the tournament and announces that he’ll defeat anyone who champions Ginevra. He defeats Polinesso, and is about to meet Ginevra’s father, the King of Scotland (Samuel Ramey) in combat, when Ariodante appears with Dalinda whom Polinesso had tried to have killed. Ariodante exposes the treachery which is corroborated by Odoardo who relays Polinesso’s confession he made before he died.
Ginevra is exonerated and she and Ariodante are married.
The cast is joined by the London Voices and English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard.
In the short time we have together after the opera, we’ll hear a bit more of Handel’s work in one of his secular cantatas, “Un’alma Innamorata” feature soprano Patrice Michaels with the Chicago Baroque Ensemble under the direction of John Mark Rozendaal. See less
