''Scipione'' (
HWV 20), also called ''Publio Cornelio Scipione'', is an
opera seria
''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...
in three acts, with music composed by
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...
for the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...
in 1726. The librettist was
Paolo Antonio Rolli
Paolo Antonio Rolli (13 June 1687 – 20 March 1765) was an Italian librettist, poet and translator.
Biography
Paolo Rolli was born in Rome, Italy and like Metastasio was trained by Gian Vincenzo Gravina. The earl of Burlington brought hi ...
. Handel composed ''Scipione'' whilst in the middle of writing ''
Alessandro
Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include:
People with the given name Alessandro
* Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter
* Alessandro Baricco ...
''. It is based on the life of the Roman general
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (, , ; 236/235–183 BC) was a Roman general and statesman, most notable as one of the main architects of Rome's victory against Carthage in the Second Punic War. Often regarded as one of the best military com ...
. Its slow
march
March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...
is the regimental march of the
Grenadier Guards
"Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it."
, colors =
, colors_label =
, march = Slow: " Scipio"
, mascot =
, equipment =
, equipment ...
and is known for being played at
London Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
passing out ceremonies.
Performance history
''Scipione'' had its premiere on 12 March 1726 at
The King's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established t ...
, Haymarket. Handel revived the opera in 1730, but it did not receive another UK production until October 1967, by the Handel Opera Society. In Germany, ''Scipione'' was revived at the
Göttingen International Handel Festival
The Göttingen International Handel Festival (German, ''Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen'') is a German festival of baroque music, based in Göttingen, Germany. The festival was established in 1919 by Oskar Hagen, art historian and f ...
in 1937 and at the annual
Handel Festival in Halle in 1965.
[Dean, Winton, "Handel's ''Scipione'' (October 1967). '']The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...
'', 108 (1496): pp. 902–904.
With the revival of interest in Baroque music and
historically informed musical performance since the 1960s, ''Scipione'', like all Handel operas, receives performances at festivals and opera houses today.
Roles
Prologue
The setting is New Carthage (
Cartagena), 210 BCE, after the Roman army, led by Scipione has captured the city from the Carthaginians and their Spanish allies.
Act 1
Scipione leads a procession of captives into the city through the triumphal arch. He anticipates future conquests and salutes his officers, with a particular laurel for Lelio. Lelio, in return, offers the prisoner Berenice to Scipione. Scipione is immediately attracted to Berenice, but vows to respect her honour. Berenice is in love with the Spanish prince Lucejo, who is among the Roman army ''incognito''. He vows to rescue her. Lelio himself is attracted to another prisoner, Armira, but she will not return the affection whilst a prisoner. This begins to draw Lelio in sympathy with the female prisoners, although he does advise Berenice to accept Scipione's affection.
The female prisoners are confined in a palace with a garden, but Scipione has forbidden strangers to enter. Still disguised, Lucejo breaches the garden, but hides when he hears Scipione approaching. Scipione tries to win over Berenice and proclaims his love for her. Lucejo cannot tolerate this, and betrays his presence by his exclamation. Berenice tries to protect Lucejo by calling him a madman and begging for mercy. Alone at the end of the act, Lucejo is unsure of Berenice's motives and begins to become jealous.
Act 2
Ernando, father to Berenice, has arrived to offer a ransom for his daughter and also friendship to Scipione. Scipione tries again to woo Berenice, but she again rejects his advances. After Scipione has left, Lucejo reappears, but she dismisses him. This confirms Lucejo's initial jealous suspicions, but Berenice feels emotionally torn. Even with his jealous feelings, Lucejo does not completely break with Berenice, but he does pretend to express affection for Armira, in the expectation that Berenice will overhear this. Both Berenice and Armira are distressed at the situation, and Scipione arrives, angry to see Lucejo in the garden. Lucejo now confesses his identity and his plans, and challenges Scipione to a duel. Scipione orders the arrest of Lucejo. Berenice then admits that she could love a Roman, if she had not promised herself to another.
Act 3
Scipione offers Ernando freedom for Berenice, on condition that he may marry her. Ernando replies that he would willingly give up his life and kingdom, but that he cannot break his earlier promise to Lucejo of Berenice in marriage. This nobility impresses Scipione, who then plans to send Lucejo to Rome as a prisoner. He further ponders the situation, and resolves to sacrifice his own personal desires for the greater happiness of the others. He tells Berenice of his change of mind and heart. He accepts the ransom offer from Ernando and frees Berenice, saying that she may marry Lucejo. Furthermore, he gives the ransom to the couple as a wedding present. All present praise Scipione's generosity, and Lucejo vows loyalty to Rome for himself and his subjects.
Context and analysis
The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera ''
Rinaldo
Rinaldo may refer to:
*Renaud de Montauban (also spelled Renaut, Renault, Italian: Rinaldo di Montalbano, Dutch: Reinout van Montalbaen, German: Reinhold von Montalban), a legendary knight in the medieval Matter of France
* Rinaldo (''Jerusalem Lib ...
''. A tremendous success, ''Rinaldo'' created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. In 1719, Handel was appointed
music director
A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...
of an organisation called the Royal Academy of Music (unconnected with the present day London conservatoire), a company under royal charter to produce Italian operas in London. Handel was not only to compose operas for the company but hire the star singers, supervise the orchestra and musicians, and adapt operas from Italy for London performance.
Within the year 1724–1725, Handel wrote three great operas in succession for the Royal Academy of Music, each with Senesino and Francesca Cuzzoni as the stars, ''
Giulio Cesare
''Giulio Cesare in Egitto'' (; , HWV 17), commonly known as ''Giulio Cesare'', is a dramma per musica ('' opera seria'') in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724. The libretto was written by Nic ...
'',''
Tamerlano
''Tamerlano'' (Tamerlane, HWV 18) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's ''Tamerlano'' together with another libretto entitled ''Bajazet'' aft ...
'', and ''
Rodelinda.
The directors of the Royal Academy of Music decided to increase the appeal of the operas by bringing another internationally famous singer, the soprano
Faustina Bordoni
Faustina Bordoni (30 March 1697 – 4 November 1781) was an Italian mezzo-soprano.
In Hamburg, Germany, the Johann Adolph Hasse Museum is dedicated to her husband and partly to Bordoni.
Early career
She was born in Venice and brought up unde ...
, to join the established London stars Cuzzoni and Senesino, as was reported in the London press - the ''Daily Journal'' wrote on 31 August 1725
'We hear that the Royal Academy (of) Musick, in the Hay Market, have contracted with famous Chauntess for 2500 ''l''. who is coming over from Italy against the Winter'[
with the ''London Journal'' adding "'Signiora Faustina, a famous Italian Lady, is coming over this Winter to rival Signiora Cuzzoni".]
However Faustina did not arrive when expected, which meant that the opera Handel was composing to feature two equally important leading ladies, ''
Alessandro
Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include:
People with the given name Alessandro
* Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter
* Alessandro Baricco ...
'', was not suitable for the gap in the opera house's schedule which had to be filled. For this reason he composed ''Scipione'' in three weeks and it received its first performance ten days after he finished composing it.
[
The haste in which ''Scipione'' was put together perhaps shows in the finished work, although it was successful with London audiences and contains much beautiful music, as 18th century musicologist ]Charles Burney
Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...
wrote: though the first act of this opera is rather feeble, and the last not so excellent as that of some of his other dramas, the second act contains beauties of various kinds sufficient to establish its reputation, as a work worthy of its great author in his meridian splendor.
Ellen Harris has discussed Handel's specific use of musical keys
In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music.
The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding ''chords'', al ...
in the opera, noting, for example, that the opera starts and concludes in G major
G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor.
The G major scale is:
Notable compositi ...
.[Harris, Ellen T., "The Italian in Handel" (Autumn 1980). '']Journal of the American Musicological Society
The ''Journal of the American Musicological Society'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal and an official journal of the American Musicological Society. It is published by University of California Press
The University of California Press, othe ...
'', 33 (3): pp. 468–500. Winton Dean
Winton Basil Dean (18 March 1916 – 19 December 2013) was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his boo ...
has noted that the opera originally contained the character of Rosalba, mother to Berenice. However, because the singer originally scheduled for the role of Rosalba was not available, that role was removed and the music and text transferred to other characters. In addition, Dean has commented on dramatic weaknesses in the plot of act 3.
The opera is scored for two recorders, two flutes, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, strings, and continuo instruments (cello, lute, harpsichord).
Recordings
* Complete recording conducted by Christophe Rousset
Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 18 ...
. Les Talens Lyriques
The French musical ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was created in 1991 in Paris, France, by the harpsichordist and orchestral conductor Christophe Rousset. This instrumental and vocal formation derives its name from the subtitle of ''Les fêtes d'Hé ...
. 3CDs FNAC 1994, reissue Aparté/Ambroisie 2010. Scipione: Derek Lee Ragin
Derek Lee Ragin (born June 17, 1958) is an American countertenor. _Biography.html" ;"title="Derek Lee Ragin > Biography">Derek Lee Ragin > Biographyallmusic
Early life
Derek Ragin was born in West Point, New York and grew up in Newark, New Jerse ...
; Berenice: Sandrine Piau
Sandrine Piau (born 5 June 1965) is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Debus ...
; Lucejo: Doris Lamprecht, mezzo-soprano; Ernando: Olivier Lallouette, baritone; Armira: Vanda Tabery, soprano; Lelio: Guy Fletcher, tenor.
References
Notes
Sources
* The first of the two-volume definitive reference on the operas of Handel
External links
Italian libretto
Score
of ''Scipione'' (ed. Friedrich Chrysander
Karl Franz Friedrich Chrysander (8 July 1826 – 3 September 1901) was a German music historian, critic and publisher, whose edition of the works of George Frideric Handel and authoritative writings on many other composers established him as a pion ...
, Leipzig 1877)
*
{{Authority control
Operas by George Frideric Handel
Italian-language operas
Operas
1726 operas
Cultural depictions of Scipio Africanus
Operas set in ancient Rome
Operas set in Spain
British military marches