Oreste
A notice in the London press said :Last Night their Majesties were at the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden, to see the Opera of Orestes, which was perform’d with great Applause.
[7] Years before the action of the opera, the young princess Ifigenia narrowly escaped death by sacrifice at the hands of her father, Agamemnon.
At the last moment the goddess Diana, to whom the sacrifice was to be made, intervened and replaced Ifigenia on the altar with a deer, saving the girl and sweeping her off to Tauris.
She has since been made a priestess at the temple of Diana in Tauris, a position in which she has the gruesome task of ritually sacrificing foreigners who land on King Toante's shores.
A seaport with ships at anchor - Ermione has arrived in Tauris, in search of her husband Oreste (Aria:Io sperai di veder il tuo volto).
Oreste is in the temple where he has taken refuge at Ifigenia's advice when he sees his friend Pilade in chains, dragged in ready to be sacrificed to the goddess.
Ifigenia intervenes however, and capitalising on Filotete's love for her, persuades him to allow Oreste to leave the temple freely (Aria:Se'l caro figlio).
Alone, Oreste expresses his thanks to the gods for sending him the "noble virgin" who has rescued him but feels guilty for leaving his friend Pilade in danger of death (Aria:Dopo l'orrore).
She scorns this offer, preferring chains and death, and, left alone, laments her cruel destiny (Aria: Piango dolente il sposo).
The temple of Diana with an altar and statue - Ifigenia, whose duty it will be to ritually sacrifice the human victims, wishes she could die instead (Aria:Mi lagnerò, tacendo).
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.
[8][9] 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.
Handel opened his first season at Covent Garden with a re-working of his earlier Il Pastor Fido with an entirely new prologue, Terpsichore, featuring the internationally famous French dancer Marie Sallé.
He was a very animated and intelligent actor, and having a considerable portion of enthusiasm in his composition, with a lively and inventive imagination, he rendered every thing he sung interesting by good taste, energy, and judicious embellishments.
It was the opinion of Hasse, as well as of many other eminent professors, that whoever had not heard Carestini was inacquainted with the most perfect style of singing.”[10] Also joining the cast of Oreste was seventeen-year-old tenor John Beard, who in this season began a collaboration with Handel that lasted until the end of the composer's life, creating many roles in his works.
Mary-Ellen Nesi (Oreste), Maria Mitsopoulou (Ermione), Mata Katsuli (Iphigenia), Antonis Koroneos (Pilade), Petros Magoulas (Toante), Nicholas Spanos (Filotete).Camerata Stuttgart, George Petrou, conductor.
