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''Alessandro'' (HWV 21), is an opera composed by George Frideric Handel in 1726 for the Royal Academy of Music. Paolo Rolli's libretto is based on the story of 's ''La superbia d'Alessandro''. This was the first time the famous singers Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni appeared together in one of Handel's operas. The original cast also included Francesco Bernardi who was known as Senesino. Handel had originally planned ''Alessandro'' to be his first contribution to the 1725—1726 season of the Royal Academy. However, Bordoni did not arrive in London in time to stage ''Alessandro'', and Handel substituted his own ''Scipione'' in March and April 1726 until her arrival. The opera received its first performance on 5 May 1726 at the King's Theatre, London,〔King, Richard G., "Classical History and Handel's ''Alessandro''" (February 1996). ''Music & Letters'', 77 (1): pp. 34–63.〕 and was received "with great applause".〔 The story recounts Alexander the Great's journey to India and depicts him less in a heroic vein than as vainglorious as well as indecisive in matters of the heart. The work's charm and lightness of touch make it at times almost a comic work. ==Background== 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''. 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 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.〔Dean, W. & J.M. Knapp (1995) Handel's operas 1704-1726, p. 298.〕 Handel had composed numerous Italian operas for the Academy, with varying degrees of success; some were enormously popular. In February 1726 Handel revived his ''Ottone'', which had been spectacularly successful at its first performances in 1723 and was again a hit at its revival, with a London newspaper reporting Handel had the satisfaction of seeing an Old Opera of his not only fill the House, which had not been done for some time,but above three hundred turn'd away for want of room.〔Burrows 2012, p.154〕 As the newspaper notes, full houses were by no means a regular occurrence by that time, and the directors of the Royal Academy of Music decided to increase audiences' interest by bringing another celebrated international opera star, Italian soprano Faustina Bordoni, to join established London favourites Francesca Cuzzoni and the star castrato Senesino in the company's performances. Many opera companies in Italy featured two leading ladies in one opera and Faustina (as she was known) and Cuzzoni had appeared together in opera performances in various European cities with no trouble; there is no indication that there was any bad feeling or ill-will between the two of them prior to their London joint appearances.〔〔 The three stars, Bordoni, Cuzzoni and Senesino commanded astronomical fees, making much more money from the opera seasons than Handel did. The opera company would have been aware that the story of the two princesses in love with Alexander the Great chosen for the two prima donnas' first joint appearance was familiar to London audiences through a tragedy by Nathaniel Lee, ''The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great'', first performed in 1677 and often revived and it may be that they were encouraging the idea that the two singers were rivals.〔 One of the agents who had arranged Faustina's appearances in London, Owen Swiny, explicitly warned against the choice of libretto as likely to cause "disorder" in a letter to the directors of the Royal Academy of Music, imploring them: never to consent to any thing that can put the Academy into disorder, as it must, certainly, if what I hear … is put in Execution: I mean the opera of Alexander the great; where there is to be a Struggle between the Rival Queen’s, for a Superiority. The performances of ''Alessandro'' went off with no signs of animosity between Bordoni and Cuzzoni or their respective supporters, but it was not very long after that tension between the two erupted. As 18th century musicologist Charles Burney observed about the Cuzzoni / Faustina rivalry, which became acute around the time of the performances of a subsequent Handel opera, ''Admeto'': it seems impossible for two singers of equal merit to tread the stage ''a parte eguale'',as for two people to ride on the same horse, without one being behind. The Royal Academy of Music collapsed at the end of the 1728 - 29 season,partly due to the huge fees paid to the star singers, and Cuzzoni and Faustina both left London for engagements in continental Europe. Handel started a new opera company with a new prima donna, Anna Strada. One of Handel's librettists, Paolo Rolli, wrote in a letter (the original is in Italian) that Handel said that Strada "sings better than the two who have left us, because one of them (Faustina) never pleased him at all and he would like to forget the other (Cuzzoni)." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alessandro (opera)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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