Händel: Crudel tiranno Amor, HWV 97 - 2/3 - Zádori
BackCrudel, tiranno Amor, HWV 97 Italian cantata for soprano with strings (2 violins and 1 viola) and basso continuo Text: - Music: Georg Friedrich Händel Composed: June 1721? First performance: probably 5 July 1721, King's Theatre, Haymarket, London ___ Video part 1 - Aria: Crudel tiranno Amor (Allegro - F major) Video part 2 - Recitativo: Ma tu mandi al mio core - Aria: O dolce mia speranza (Larghetto - F minor) Video part 3 - Recitativo: Senza te, dolce spene - Aria: O cara spene, del mio diletto (Allegro - E flat major) ___ In this video: Mária Zádori, soprano Concerto Armonico Artistic directors: Péter Szüts and Miklós Spányi Recorded in January 1992 ___ There is no autograph for this cantata. It appears at the end of the first of the two books of cantatas in Elizabeth Legh's collection of Händel's music. These books are dated 1718 and 1720; however, according to Donald Burrows, they were bound with blank pages at the end, or kept unbound for a few years, or completed with new pages and rebound, and the dates on each volume would only indicate the year in which they were begun. Anthony Hicks thinks that Crudel tiranno Amor was the "new cantata" performed by Margherita Durastanti at her benefit concert on 5 July 1721 at King's Theatre. On 4 December 1722, when she took over Rossane in a revival of the opera Floridante, Händel added to her role the three arias from Crudel tiranno Amor, which tends to prove that she was already familiar with them. Crudel tiranno Amor is probably the last cantata composed by Händel. According to Ellen T. Harris, "it makes a particularly apt ending to Handel's cantata period: on the one hand, it looks back to the significant compositions for Ruspoli in Rome and, on the other, it moves out of the private sphere onto the public stage." And indeed, its three arias are not unworthy of the music composed by Händel for his best operas, which explains why he reused them in the 1722 revival of Floridante. About this video in particular: When I first heard the second aria, "O dolce mia speranza" (Larghetto, 12/8, F minor), I thought that I had already heard something similar in one of Händel's operas. I looked for it, to no avail. But Eser told me that it reminded her of "Son nata a lagrimar" (Largo, 12/8, E minor), the sublime Sesto-Cornelia duet at the end of Act I of Giulio Cesare in Egitto. And indeed they have a lot in common. The aria was (probably) first performed by Durastanti in 1721; she sang it again in the context of Floridante in 1722; and she was Sesto in the first cast of Giulio Cesare in 1724 (Anastasia Robinson was Cornelia). It seems to me that the aria was a source of inspiration for the duet. As always, when Händel reaches the sublime, it's through perfecting previous (gorgeous) compositions, which are themselves, very often, perfected versions of his early works or other composers' material. There is no true invention, only long and patient refining. And consequently, I dare say that if Händel became more and more able to move us with time, it was not because his heart was softening with age (he never showed anything of the kind), but only because he was perfecting his art. ___ Recitativo Ma tu mandi al mio core la speme lusinghiera, che promette il ritorno, il ritorno bramato del caro bene amato. Aria O dolce mia speranza, no, non partir da me! Per te, di lontananza non sento più tormento, e vivo sol per te. ___ Translation (by Anthony Hicks): Recitativo You send to my heart a flattering hope which promises the eagerly awaited return of the beloved. Aria Oh, my sweet hope, do not depart from me! Because of you, I no longer feel the torments of distance, and live only for you. ___ Marc D.
Category: Music
Uploaded: July 2nd, 2008 @ 4:19 pm
Author: HandelCantatas
Length: 08:00
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Tags: amor armonico concerto crudel frideric george handel maria tiranno zadori
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