Rinaldo, HWV 7 (1718 Naples version)

Composer: Leo, Leonardo

Composer: Handel, George Frideric

Librettist/Text Author: Rossi, Giacomo

Conductor: Luisi, Fabio

Orchestra: Scintilla Orchestra, La

Almirena: Castellano, Loriana

Araldo di Argante: Hoxha, Dielli

Argante: Ascioti, Francesca

Armida: Remigio, Carmela

Eustazio: Savinova, Dara

Goffredo: Fernandez-Rueda, Francisco

Lesbina: Cardinali, Valentina

Mago cristiano: Pitts, Ana Victoria

Nesso: Tangolo, Simone

Rinaldo: Iervolino, Teresa

Uno spirito in forma di donna: Strebel, Kim-Lillian

Set Designer: Nonnato, Alberto

Costume Designer: Sbicca, Gianluca

Lighting Designer: Rodighiero, Paolo Pollo

Stage Director: Sangati, Giorgio

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Date of Production: 2019

Festival: Valle D'Itria Festival, Italy

Playing Time: 03:36:14

Catalogue Number: 37831

UPC: 8007144378318

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The Neapolitan version of Rinaldo: the stages of its rediscovery.

In 1711 George Friedrich Handel's Rinaldo was premiered in London at the Queen's Theatre of Haymarket. The opera was immediately successful, thanks to the presence of a great interpreter in the role of the protagonist: the Neapolitan castrato Nicola Grimaldi. In 1718 Rinaldo arrived in Naples, where it was adapted by Leonardo Leo and an unknown librettist. In that period theatres would stage both new operas and popular works that were reworked where necessary.

Rinaldo was one of the latter: a pasticcio, or rather an opera impasticciata (a score consisting of pre-existing music and pieces
added for the occasion). Rarely was a score performed without being modified, because tastes and performing practices changed, as did the interpreters involved. The following table compares the London and Naples performers.