Ariodante

Ariodante is an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.

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The anonymous libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. The opera was first performed in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 8 January 1734.

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Ariodante opened Handel's first season at Covent Garden and successfully competed against the rival Opera of the Nobility, supported by the Prince of Wales. Handel had the tacit and financial support of the King and Queen and, more vocally, of the Princess Royal.

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Like Handel's other works in the opera seria genre, Ariodante, despite its initial success, fell into oblivion for more than two hundred years. In the 1970s, it began to be revived, and has now come to be considered one of Handel's finest operas.

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Ariodante is part of the standard operatic repertoire.

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There are several recordings of it, and it is regularly performed.

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Opera: Opera refers to an European art form consisting of a dramatic stage performance set to music. Comparable art forms from other parts of the world are usually prefaced with an adjective indicating the region; examples include Chinese opera and Beijing opera....

George Frideric Handel: George Frideric Handel (German Georg Friedrich H?ndel), (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a German Baroque music composer who lived much of his life in England, a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. His best-known works are Water Music, Music for the Royal Firewor...

Ludovico Ariosto: Ludovico Ariosto (September 8, 1474 – July 6, 1533) was an Italian poet, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), "Orlando Enraged"....