# Top ten favorite Baroque operas



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Let's share which are our favorite operas from the Baroque period. Ten is just a number, a few less or a few more will do also. 

These are mine:

Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Handel) - 




Tamerlano (Handel) - 




Arminio (Biber) - 




Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) - 




L'incoronazione di Dario (Vivaldi) - 




Griselda (Scarlatti) - 




Titon et l'Aurore (Mondonville) - 




Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) - 




Acis & Galatée (Lully) - 




Orfeo (Rossi) -


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Monteverdi)

L'incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi)

Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Handel) 

Tamerlano (Handel) 

(actually too many by Handel to really choose)

Elena (Cavalli)

Les Indes galantes (Rameau)

Armide (Lully)

Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)

Ercole sul Termodonte (Vivaldi)

Artaserse (Vinci)


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

L'Orfeo (Claude Greenmount)
Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Greenmount)
L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Greemount)
Giulio Cesare (Handel)
Tamerlano (Handel)
Ariodante (Handel)
Rodelinda (Handel)
Alcina (Handel)
Ercole sul Termodonte (Vivaldi)

So much for operas, but if we allow some oratorios that are frequently mounted as operas, I would then include a tenth and an eleventh:

Saul (Handel)
Teodora (Handel)


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Revenant said:


> (Claude Greenmount)


has he recently got citizenship from an English speaking country?


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Honorary. Recently revealed by scholarly research.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

^^^ In that case they mispelled his name.
Greenmount = Monteverd*e

*


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

GioCar said:


> ^^^ In that case they mispelled his name.
> Greenmount = Monteverd*e
> 
> *


Probably they were referring only to him, just one mount. And not his family the Monteverdi.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Yeah, I have a thing for Monteverdi. Why did we have to lose all of his stuff when he died?!

Handel - Rinaldo
Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
Monteverdi - L'incoronazione di Poppea
Monteverdi - Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Purcell - Dido and Aeneas
Gluck - L'Orfeo
Rameau - Castor et Pollux


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

What's about some Baroque opera sung in German?.










_Der hochmüthige, gestürzte und wieder erhabene Croesus_; with a libretto in German by Lucas von Bostel, was premiered in Hamburg in 1711, but it was revised by Keiser some 20 years later, and premiered again in 1730, which is the version recorded above.

A beautiful aria sung by Sandrine Piau:


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

schigolch said:


> What's about some Baroque opera sung in German?


it has Dorothea Roschmann so my answer is yes!


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Early Baroque (I haven't heard as many to choose...) 

Monteverdi: L'Orfeo

Middle and late Baroque + French operas before the Revolution

Lully: Cadmus et Hermione
Campra: Tancrède
Marais: Alcyone
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie
Purcell: Dido et Aeneas
Scarlatti: Griselda
Hasse: Didone abbandonata 
Handel: Agrippina
Pergolesi: La serva padrona
Rousseau: Le Devin du Village
Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice 
Grétry: Richard Cœur-de-lion 

(Note: picked up only one masterwork from each composer)


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## Rackon (Apr 9, 2013)

Danke sehr! Looking forward to listening to this.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I was never into Baroque, other than Handel's Messiah, but when I got into Beverly Sills, I ended up with Julius Ceasar. Later I bought Ottone in Villa on a whim, Tolomeo for Anna Bonitatibus, and now I just placed an order for Ariodante because I just bought tickets to a concert version of it for next April (and both the CD and the concert feature Joyce DiDonato). So I seem to be getting into Baroque opera and liking it, which is a good thing I guess. Anyway, I can only list what I have (in possession or on order):

Handel, Julius Ceasar 
Vivaldi, Ottone in Villa 
Handel, Tolomeo 
Handel, Ariodante


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Baroque opera was on fire from @ 2002-2014 period with Alan Curtis (virgin/archiv labels) and Naïve label Vivaldi & Handel Italian operas releasing a flood of great performances with an entire sub sector of specialist singers and conductors who really elevated the art higher than ever before.........

Now Naïve is out of business and not sure what happened to Curtis, but we have much more limited flow of releases now, I* used to eagerly buy every release by Naïve and Curtis, those were the glory days..........
*
I must admit to listening with remote close at hand to skip over the spoken sections (recitativo) even though under these new performances they have more rhythmic vocal inflection and richer continuo music backing


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

DarkAngel said:


> Baroque opera was on fire from @ 2002-2014 period with Alan Curtis (virgin/archiv labels) and Naïve label Vivaldi & Handel Italian operas releasing a flood of great performances with an entire sub sector of specialist singers and conductors who really elevated the art higher than ever before.........
> 
> Now Naïve is out of business and not sure what happened to Curtis,


Unfortunately, Alan Curtis died this past July. He was a great baroque musician.


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## Scopitone (Nov 22, 2015)

DarkAngel said:


> Baroque opera was on fire from @ 2002-2014 period with Alan Curtis (virgin/archiv labels) and Naïve label Vivaldi & Handel Italian operas releasing a flood of great performances with an entire sub sector of specialist singers and conductors who really elevated the art higher than ever before.........
> 
> Now Naïve is out of business and not sure what happened to Curtis, but we have much more limited flow of releases now, I* used to eagerly buy every release by Naïve and Curtis, those were the glory days..........
> *
> I must admit to listening with remote close at hand to skip over the spoken sections (recitativo) even though under these new performances they have more rhythmic vocal inflection and richer continuo music backing


Thanks for making your images clickable though to amazon! Really helps to research the work - and then go find it on Apple Music.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

My numbers won't reach 10. 

I am not that baroque fan, all depends on who's singing, like Sutherland or Fleming doing Alcina / Rodelinda.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Don't worry, I guess 10 it was perhaps too high a number. Just share the ones you like.


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> Unfortunately, Alan Curtis died this past July. He was a great baroque musician.


Last year shortly after his passing West Edge Opera performed _Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria_ in the edition he prepared (though there were cuts) and dedicated the performances to him. He had worked with the company before, including musical direction for Serse in 2010.

And last night at Joyce DiDonato's recital on the campus of UC Berkeley she spoke highly of Curtis, and noted his help in finding and preparing music for the world premiere aria recordings of music by Jommelli and Leo for her latest recital album (and of course, she collaborated more closely with him for Drama Queens).


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

mountmccabe said:


> Last year shortly after his passing West Edge Opera performed _Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria_ in the edition he prepared (though there were cuts) and dedicated the performances to him. He had worked with the company before, including musical direction for Serse in 2010.
> 
> And last night at Joyce DiDonato's recital on the campus of UC Berkeley she spoke highly of Curtis, and noted his help in finding and preparing music for the world premiere aria recordings of music by Jommelli and Leo for her latest recital album (and of course, she collaborated more closely with him for Drama Queens).


Curtis was hugely influential on improving baroque vocal performance style in last 15yrs, many recordings with Joyce during those years, I will miss his contributions.........


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## Anselm (Feb 24, 2011)

Does a play with incidental music count? I've just seen a complete staged performance in original costume and using what I assume is period acting style of Molière/Lully's _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_ on YouTube, and was blown away.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

I'm not sure if I have ten, but let's see how far I can get...

1. Cavalli, Elena (rarely staged, but a close friend of mine directed an excellent production of it several years ago)
2. Rameau, Les Indes Galantes
3. Monteverdi, Orfeo
4. Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea
5. Rameau, Castor et Pollux
6. Handel, Alcina
7. Handel, Giulio Cesare

OK, that's it for now. My New Year's resolution is to explore more Baroque music. Maybe I'll be able to add to this list in a few months.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Indeed, there are many, many Baroque operas to be explored, so this is hugely rewarding journey.

This year in Nancy it was staged one of my favorite Baroque pieces, Luigi Rossi's "Orfeo". It's complete in youtube:






I wrote a few lines about the opera some years ago, in the Groups, that I reproduce here as a manner of introduction for any member not familiar with the subject:

In 1642 Cardinal Mazarin replaced his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu, as chief minister of France. The following year, King Louis XIII died leaving his young son, just five years old, Louis XIV as successor. Until his majority of age, Mazarin and the King's mother, Anne of Austria, would effectively rule France.

Mazarin (his true name was Giulio Mazarino) was Italian, and fond of Italian music. Particularly, he was a true fan of Italian opera, a nascent genre at that time. He invited several Italian artists (composers, singers, instrumentalists,…) to the French court, during the 1640s and 1650s.

One of those composers was Luigi Rossi. He was trained in Naples, and from there he travelled to Rome at the service of the Pope, where he was famous as a true master of cantatas. Though in early 17th century, the lines between cantata and oratorio (indeed, even with opera itself) were rather blurry.

Rossi also staged an opera in 1642, _Il palazzo incantato di Atlante_, with a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi, the future Pope Clement IX. In 1646 he received an invitation from Cardinal Mazarin, and he travelled to Paris, to start working in an opera for the French court, _Orfeo_.

With a libretto by Francesco Buti, that was also in Paris working for Mazarin, and that wrote librettos also for composers like Francesco Cavalli, Rossi started to work in the opera in June, 1646. A few months later, his wife, the harpist Costanza De Ponte, died. Rossi was very fond of his wife, and they were very close, even if the marriage had not produced children. It was a devastating blow to him, and somehow inspired also part of the music we can hear in the opera, tinged it with a kind of understated sadness and sorrow.

In March, 1647, _Orfeo_ was staged, with the presence of the King, the Queen Regent, and Mazarin. It was a huge success, and was a big influence in the development of French Baroque Opera. The major roles: Orfeo (castrato), Euridice (soprano) and Aristeo (castrato) were performed by some of the more important Italian singers of the period: Atto Melani, Anna Francesca Costa and Marcantonio Pasqualini. Rossi was expecting to continue his career in Paris, but the French civil war known as 'The Fronde' started, and his patron, Mazarin, lost temporarily his power. Rossi returned to Italy, where he died in 1653.

The score of _Orfeo_ was lost after the death of Rossi, but fortunately a copy was located at the end of the 19th century, in a library at Rome. However, nobody was much interested in it, until La Scala decided to offer the first staging of Rossi's masterpiece in more than 300 years, back in 1982/1985, under the baton of Bruno Rigacci, with a production of Luca Ronconi, and Mariana Nicolesco, Elena Zilio and William Mateuzzi singing.










In 1992 William Christie orchestrated the delightful melodies of Luigi Rossi and decided to record the opera, in the wonderful CD above. Especially the duets between Orfeo and Euridice are simply great, and also there are very good renditions by Agnès Mellon and Monique Zanetti.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Handel Giulio Cesare.

Handel Hercules.

Short list.

Short interest.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bettina said:


> I'm not sure if I have ten, but let's see how far I can get...
> 
> 1. Cavalli, Elena (rarely staged, but a close friend of mine directed an excellent production of it several years ago)
> 2. Rameau, Les Indes Galantes
> ...


A nice list, but not my cup of tea, except for the Giulio Cesare pick. I've seen it several times. Marvelous music!


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2016)

Monteverdi Orfeo
Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea
Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie
M.A Charpentier Acteon
M.A Charpentier Les Arts Florissants
Purcell Didi & AEneas


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Handel Giulio Cesare.
> 
> Handel Hercules.
> 
> ...


So I am curious how you got into these two? (And knowing that, we may be able to entice you into others.)


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Florestan said:


> So I am curious how you got into these two? (And knowing that, we may be able to entice you into others.)


I was in communication with a Fanfare reviewer and he told me that Hercules, was a very fine Handel opera, so I bought it and liked it. Giulio Cesare, like the oratorio Semele, I heard as a Met broadcast on radio and I was impressed.

I would say Giulio Cesare, Semele and Messiah are my favorite Handel works. Hercules comes up a bit short compared to those three great works.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

hpowders said:


> I was in communication with a Fanfare reviewer and he told me that Hercules, was a very fine Handel opera, so I bought it and liked it. Giulio Cesare, like the oratorio Semele, I heard as a Met broadcast on radio and I was impressed.
> 
> I would say Giulio Cesare, Semele and Messiah are my favorite Handel works. Hercules comes up a bit short compared to those three great works.


How about some Vivaldi? Here is an excellent recording that I am currently listening to (clips):









One tenor and four sopranos--enough to make you giddy! :lol:


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Monica Groop is rather a mezzo. 

In the original cast, the role of Ottone was for a contralto, and the role of Caio for a castrato. 

I was part of the audience some years ago in a performance with Cangemi, Invernizzi, Lezhneva, Prina and Lehtipuu, plus Il Giardino Armonico, that was later released by Naïve. Arguably the more famous aria is "Gelosia, tu giá rendi l'alma mia", that was sung by Cecilia Bartoli, but my preferred passage is when Caio is singing "l'ombre, l'aura, e ancora il rio", with instruments sounding like the 'shadow, the air and the river', and the voice of Tullia as echo.

A nice opera, indeed.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

schigolch said:


> Monica Groop is rather a mezzo.
> 
> In the original cast, the role of Ottone was for a contralto, and the role of Caio for a castrato.


Ah, it would be nice to have a contralto in this. I am noticing that some of the soprano is sung rather lower such as a mezzo would.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

schigolch said:


> I was part of the audience some years ago in a *performance with Cangemi, Invernizzi, Lezhneva, Prina and Lehtipuu*, *plus Il Giardino Armonico, that was later released by Naïve*. Arguably the more famous aria is "Gelosia, tu giá rendi l'alma mia", that was sung by Cecilia Bartoli, but my preferred passage is when Caio is singing "l'ombre, l'aura, e ancora il rio", with instruments sounding like the 'shadow, the air and the river', and the voice of Tullia as echo.
> 
> A nice opera, indeed.












Great CD set and fine example of the modern Naïve label performance style, love those singers especially Invernizzi.......


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

DarkAngel said:


>


Nice, and it has a contralto.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Florestan said:


> How about some Vivaldi? Here is an excellent recording that I am currently listening to (clips):
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I just had some Ottone in Villa in a nice lobster sauce last night at Mascagni's.


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Isn't Gluck Classical Period and Monteverdi Renaissance?


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