We’re off to the Paris Opera for this week’s Sunday Opera (7/5 3:00 p.m.) and a production of one of Handel’s Italian operas “Ariodante” from September of 2025. The source material for “Ariodante” has been used in well over 70 different projects. In the past, we heard one treatment by Giovanni Simone Mayr on the Sunday Opera in his opera “Ginevra di Scozia.” “Ariodante” 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 (Jacquelyn Stucker) and the Italian knight Ariodante (Cecilia Molinari) are deeply in love, but their relationship is threatened by Polinesso (Christophe Dumaux), 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 (Sabine Devieilhe), 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 (Ru Charlesworth).
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 (Enrico Casari), 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 (Luca Tittoto) 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.
If this synopsis looks a little familiar, it’s because it is. We featured a recording of “Ariodante” with Dame Janet Baker in the title role back in April. The story hasn’t changed, so neither has the synopsis!
After the opera, please stay tuned for a lesser-known work by Handel, his Silete Venti for Soprano and Strings (HWV 242), a virtuosic piece that was obviously written for an operatic soprano with impeccable technique. Here, our soprano is Rebecca Ryan, and she’s joined by The Royal Academy Consort with Jeremy Summerly conducting.
