Ravinia 2025 Issue 6

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) Alcina , HWV 34 Scored for two oboes/recorders, one bassoon, two horns, first and second violins, viola, cello, double bass, and basso continuo (lute, harpsichord) The English actor and theater manager John Rich opened the newly constructed Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on December 7, 1732, af- ter securing financing from 50 investors who purchased shares for £300. The investor group then leased the building to Rich for a portion of ticket sales. An urban legend claiming that prof- its from his enormously successful 1728 pro- duction of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera at Lincoln’s Inn Fields paid for the building have proven false, although the contemporary quip that the production “made Gay rich and Rich gay” undoubtedly represents the truth. Once opened, the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, be- came one of only two houses granted royal pat- ents to perform dramas in London, the other being the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Although Rich chose William Congreve’s com- ic play The Way of the World to inaugurate his new theater in 1732, his real interests lay in music and dance, which adorned most of his productions. For years, the most skilled danc- ers from the Théâtre-Italien and Opéra in Par- is crossed the Channel to perform with Rich’s company. The most renowned danceuse was Marie Sallé, who starred as the Statue Galatea in Covent Garden’s first ballet, Pygmalion , on January 14, 1734. Rich’s musical tastes were clear: “my Inclination to Musick frequently leads me to visit the Italian Opera.” The savvy impresario engaged George Frideric Handel, who had been dismissed by the Royal Academy of Music in 1733, to produce a series of Italian operas for the 1734/35 Covent Garden season. Despite his frequent embattlements with Ital- ian singers, Handel was able to attract star tal- ent, notably the soprano Maria Strada and con- tralto Maria Caterina Negri, to the new theater. George Frideric Handel by Balthasar Denner (1726–1728) The Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, offered fresh musical and theatrical possibilities to Handel. Rich’s artistic inclinations encouraged the intro- duction of choruses and dances—both French theatrical characteristics—into Italian opera se- ria . Architect Edward Shepherd’s design and construction of Covent Garden was a constant source of complaint for Rich, but it appears to have included a weighted fly system, catwalk, paint shop, backstage scenic shop, orchestra pit, vaulted ceilings, box seats, and balconies. Though the facility’s overall capabilities are largely undocumented, the technical demands of the known productions reveal an ability to provide special effects, such as falling rocks and magical trickeries. The original Covent Garden building burned to the ground on Septem- ber 20, 1808, and has been rebuilt twice since. Carlo Broschi, also known as the castrato Farinelli, who set the libretto L’isola di Alcina in 1728 Handel produced three of his own works during the 1734/35 season: the Italian pasticcio Oreste and two opera seria , Ariodante and Alcina . For Alcina , he selected an anonymous libretto, based on cantos 6 and 7 of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso , previously used for the opera L’isola di Alcina (1728) by Carlo Broschi, otherwise known as the castrato singer Farinelli. Ariosto’s epic poem about the medieval knight Roland caught in the war between Charlemagne’s Chris- tian forces and the invading Saracen army first appeared in 1516. Its literary influence continues to this day. Orlando furioso has inspired dozens of operatic settings, three by Handel: Orlando (1733), Ariodante (1735), and Alcina (1735). Title page of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (1658) A print of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin’s Microcosm of London , vol. 1 (1808), before a fire destroyed the theater in September 1808 RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUG. 18 – AUG. 31, 2025 72