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Handel - Amadigi di Gaula | Ambroisie AM133

Handel - Amadigi di Gaula

Label: Ambroisie

Cat No: AM133

Barcode: 0822186001332

Format: CD + Book

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 28th January 2008

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Eduardo Lopez Banzo (harpsichord)
Maria Riccarda Wesseling
Elena de la Merced
Sharon Rostorf Zamir
Jordi Domenech
Al Ayre Espanol Orquestra

Conductor

Eduardo Lopez Banzo

Artists

Eduardo Lopez Banzo (harpsichord)
Maria Riccarda Wesseling
Elena de la Merced
Sharon Rostorf Zamir
Jordi Domenech
Al Ayre Espanol Orquestra

Conductor

Eduardo Lopez Banzo

About

Handel’s fifth London opera, the rarely recorded Amadigi di Gaula, is here performed by the outstanding combination of “Al Ayre Espagnol” and its conductor Eduardo Lopez Banzo. The recording features a fine cast of expert soloists.
 
Amadigi di Gaula was inspired by a text written by the French writer Antoine Houdar de la Motte entitled “Amadis de Grèce”. Destouches had already composed music around this text sixteen years before Handel. It was the composer’s fifth London opera and received its first performance in London at the Haymarket Theatre on 25 May 1715. The original cast included the celebrated castrato Nicolo Grimaldi. It was a great success and received a known minimum of 17 further performances in London through 1717, and a similar number in Hamburg from 1717-1720, with a different title, Oriana. It then fell into neglect until a revival performance in 1968 at the Abbey Hall, Abingdon, by the English based “Unicorn Opera Group”.
 
Although the plot of “Amadigi di Gaula” is convoluted, it has at its centre a fairly simple premise. Amagigi, ”a famous hero”, and Dardano, Prince of Thrace, are rivals for the love of Oriana, daughter of the King of the Fortune Islands. Oriana is in love with Amadigi, as is the sorceress Melissa who throughout the opera tries to captivate him with potions and spells. Needless to say after various twists, true love conquers all and Amadigi and Oriana end up min each others arms.
 
Soloists:
Amadigi: Maria Riccarda Wesseling   
Oriane: Elenade la Merced
Melisse & Orgando: Sharon Rostorf Zamir 
Dardanus: Jordi Domenech

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