Sardelli Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - Rinaldo - BLU-RAY

George Frideric Handel was one of those rare composers who excelled in works sacred and secular, instrumental and operatic, leaving us extraordinary masterpieces in every field of music. Already renowned in Italy, Handel made himself known in London with Rinaldo in 1711, which was such a success that he decided to remain in England for good. It is still regarded as one of his greatest operas. Set during the Crusades, Rinaldo is a lavish spectacle that tells a story of love, magic, struggles for power and ultimate reconciliation. Pier Luigi Pizzi's acclaimed production brings us into a 'dreamlike, unreal... world of spells and incantations'. (Epoca). This production by Pier Luigi Pizzi, conceived in 1985 for Teatro Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, has traveled since to some twenty major opera houses worldwide. Discounting practical cuts and a few displacements of musical numbers, it's durable attraction lies in the gorgeous costumes and scenery, a stylish paragon of Hyperbaroque eschewing both literalism and cheap provocation. It is performed at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, which was the first theatre to reopen after lockdown. The set design and direction perfectly respond to the current safety measures.

For the first time in modern times, Festival della Valle d'Itria stages the Neapolitan version of Handel's Rinaldo, a pastiche with a Mediterranean allure which Leonardo Leo assembled in 1718 and which was considered lost until a few years ago. The story behind this most rare opera is captivating the score of Handel's masterpiece was illegally brought to Naples by the castrato singer Nicolò Grimaldi, who first interpreted Rinaldo in London. Once in Italy, the work was rehashed by Leo as well as other local composers, who adapted it to the taste of the local Neapolitan public, adding some intermezzos and amusing characters. Director Giorgio Sangati turns this work into a Inchba-rockInch opera set in the 1980's, where the struggle between Christians and Turks becomes a battle between pop-rock singers (the Christians) and dark-metal ones (the Turks). These two factions represent two opposite perspectives on love and life. Conductor Fabio Luisi is at the head of the baroque Ensemble La Scintilla, a group of specialists in the baroque repertoire. Excellent reviews for the vocal cast who endured an almost 4 hour performance, special mentions to Carmela Remigio (Armida) who was defined Inchvocally majestic and most convincing in her acting skillsInch, whereas Teresa Iervolino (Rinaldo) impressed the critics for her vocal and acting skills en travesti and her ability Inchto convey all the melancholic shades of Handel's musicInch (Luca Ciammarughi, classicaviva. Com).

Florence, May 2nd, 1589 on occasion of the wedding of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine an impressive celebration apparatus was put up to display the magnificence of the Medici household. Behind this official event lay an ambitious project which involved an incredible team of the most important poets and musicians of the time, such as Cristofano Malvezzi, Luca Marenzio, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Emilio De' Cavalieri as well as Count Giovanni De' Bardi, who was engaged to compose the Intermedi for Girolamo Bargagli's play La Pellegrina. Renaissance intermediums were sumptuous musical interludes inserted between the acts of a theatrical show on allegorical and moral themes with eclectic references to classical mythology. They are considered as the forerunners of musical opera. The spectacular show, which was performed using a complex stage machinery set up in Palazzo Pitti's Boboli gardens, was an immediate success, so much that the intermediums were performed in the days to follow during another two plays. The Six intermediums in La Pellegrina provide for choral madrigals, double and triple choirs, solo accompanied numbers and instrumental pieces, inserted into the impressive and sumptuous staging by Bernando Buontalenti. 430 years later, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in collaboration with Galleria Degli Uffizi produces the first staging in modern times of the Intermedi della Pellegrina through an itinerant show in Palazzo Pitti's Boboli Gardens. Stage director Valentino Villa's approach was to Inchattempt at an ironic historical reconstruction, [where] imageries blur together, classical mythology is grafted onto contemporary iconographyInch. Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli leads Modo Antiquo and Chorus Master Alberto Allegrezza is at the head of Coro Ricercare Ensemble and Compagnia Dramatodìa.