Imeneo

Dramma per musica in tre atti
Including the version of the first performance (1740) and the performing version of 1742


HWV 41
German Translation by Michael Pacholke
Vocal Score based on the Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition by M. Pacholke
BA 4072a




PREFACE

Imeneo received its first performance on 22 November 1740, in the course of a season of Italian operas and English oratorios that Handel gave at the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. A second performance was given on 13 December 1740: another had also been advertised for 29 November, but was cancelled owing to the indisposition of one of the singers. The cast for the performances of November/December 1740 was:

Tirinto: Giovanni Battista Andreoni (Alto castrato)
Rosmene: Elisabeth Duparc, ‘La Francesina’ (Soprano)
Clomiri: Miss (?Mary) Edwards (Soprano)
Imeneo: William Savage (Bass)
Argenio: Henry Theodore Reinhold (Bass)

The composition history of Imeneo is unusually complex because Handel had originally drafted the opera two years before it came to performance: the autograph was commenced on 9 September 1738, and the composer dated the end of the acts on 14, 17 and 20 September, respectively . In 1739 he returned to the score and made substantial revisions, producing a second almost-complete draft. He had probably hoped to perform the opera in his 1738-9 and 1739-40 theatre seasons, but different circumstances prevented this from happening. When Handel was finally able to produce Imeneo, in what proved to be his last London season to include Italian operas, further recomposition was needed in order to suit his new group of performers: the autograph records that he completed the final Coro movement on 10 October 1740.
Although Imeneo is a work from Handel’s last London opera season, the composer did revive the work again, for two performances at the Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, on 24 and 31 March 1742. This production was described on the printed libretto as a “Serenata”, and it seems almost certain that the performances were given in concert-style presentation, without staging. There is no documentary evidence for the cast, but the role of Rosmene was probably played by the soprano Christina Maria Avolio, that of Tirinto by the contralto (or mezzo-soprano) Susanna Cibber, and that of Imeneo by a tenor named Calloghan . The identity of the bass who played Argenio is not known, and the role of Clomiri was reduced to a very small residue of recitative in Act 2 Scene 2 and the last scene of Act 3, though her name was not removed from the headings of other scenes in which she had formerly taken part.
The Dublin performances involved substantial alterations to the 1740 London score, partly demanded by differences in the solo voices but partly also the result of Handel‘s decision to incorporate some other music: he introduced three movements transferred from his last London opera Deidamia, and a duet from his earlier opera Sosarme (London, 1732). He also composed a new duet to conclude Act 1, based on the music and text of a movement from his London opera Faramondo (1737-8). Overall, the Dublin version presents a distinctly different performing score for the opera.
Imeneo calls for no spectacular scenic effects, and may have been performed in London within the single “Deliziosa” setting specified at the beginning of the libretto. Uniquely among Handel‘s operas, the work was described as an ,,Operetta“ in newspaper advertisements for the 1740 production and also on the title page of John Walsh‘s contemporary edition of songs from the opera, although the printed libretto for the London performances carried the normal designation ,,Drama per Musica“. The text of Imeneo was derived from a two-part libretto by Silvio Stampiglia for a “Componimento Dramatico” produced in connection with wedding celebrations at Naples in 1723, and set to music by Nicola Porpora . Porpora adapted his own score subsequently as a three-act opera for Venice in 1726, but Handel clearly worked from a source that followed the original two-part version.
In contrast to the multiplicity of incidents and complex plots characteristic of opera seria, Imeneo deals relatively simply with a straightforward plot. Rosmene has to choose between two suitors, Tirinto and Imeneo: Clomiri’s infatuation with Imeneo never really complicates the situation because she seems powerless to divert his attention. Rosmene’s situation is difficult because she is involved with obligations towards both of her suitors: she is betrothed to Tirinto, but Imeneo claims her as his promised reward for rescuing the Athenian maidens. In Handel’s treatment of the opera Tirinto, the role for the castrato Andreoni, clearly has the type of music associated with the leading male character, yet in the final scene Rosmene rejects him in favour of the Imeneo. (In the original production the role of the youthful Imeneo was played by William Savage, whose bass voice had only recently settled: he had sung solo roles as a boy treble for Handel at Covent Garden in 1735-8.) It is difficult to resist the impression that the composer deliberately presented his story in a way that treated with levity the expected conventions of the operatic form in which he had hitherto made his career. Perhaps this feature, and the tunefulness of many of the arias, suggested the description of the work as an operetta. Imeneo indeed occupies an ambiguous position in relation to “serious” opera, and this, properly appreciated, forms one of its attractions. Handel set the story with a light touch.

Presentation of Handel’s versions of Imeneo in this edition
The main text gives the opera in the version from Handel’s first performances (1740), and the Appendix presents the version performed by him in 1742. The voice-types for the solo parts in the two versions are as follows:

	1740	1742
Tirinto	Alto castrato	Contralto
Rosmene	Soprano	Soprano
Clomiri	Soprano	Soprano (role reduced)
Imeneo	Bass	Tenor
Argenio	Bass	Bass

If a movement is included in substantially the same musical form in both performing versions of the opera, it is printed in full only in the main text. The re-use of this music in the second version is indicated in the Appendix by cues that show where the music can be found. For example, the cue (on page 164) 3. Coro ”Vien Imeneo fra voi” [3, p. 17] is a direction to the music of Coro no. 3 in the main text.
If a movement is re-used in the Appendix, unchanged except for transposition, the transposition is reprinted in the appendix.

Variants in the soloists’ parts
Tirinto: In nos. 23 and 24 upper alternative notes were added to some passages in the performing score, possibly by Handel: these may have been performed in 1740. Similarly the higher alternative notes in no. 2 bars 6-7 may relate to the 1740 performances. Appendix aria no. 9 may have been cut for one or both of the performances in 1742.
Imeneo: Music for Imeneo is given in the bass clef in the main text and in the modern tenor clef in the Appendix, except that no. 9 is not repeated as Appendix no. 7: the music and key of the aria for the Appendix are identical to those in the main text, save for the change of solo voice. Clomiri: The role in the Appendix follows the form given in the 1742 libretto. In the recitative ,,La mia mente or confusa“ (II, 2) Clomiri may have sung the higher alternative notes from 1740 (as in the main text) or the original lower pitches from 1739 (as in the appendix): both would have remained available from the performing score.
Argenio: In no. 12 Handel made a series of alterations to the solo part at bars 55 and 72: the notes can, for practical purposes, be regarded as legitimate alternatives for either performing version, to be taken according to the vocal range of the singer.

Donald Burrows