Organization

Händel-Festspiele Halle

Conductor

Wolfgang Katschner

Stage director

Franco Citterio

Giovanni Schiavolin

Singer

Countertenor

Ida Aldrian

Ariodante

Soprano

Hanna Zumsande

Ginevra

Birita Poulsen

Dalinda

Contralto

Julia Böhme

Polinesso

Tenor

Florian Sievers

Lurcanio

Bass

Elías Arranz

The King of Scotland

Lautten Compagney Berlin

Italian

Bad Lauchstaedt

Germany

Goethe-Theater

Ariodante Händel

Public

German

Approved

Joint production of the Halle Handel Festival, the Stadttheater Schaffhausen, the Associazione Grupporiani Milano, Comune di Milano – Cultura Teatro Convenzionato and the lautten compagney BERLIN.
The Halle Handel Festival is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag.

Ariodante is Handel's 29th opera and is considered to be one of his most beautiful works and one of his clearest in terms of plot. Between 1733 and 1735 Handel wrote three operas based on stories from Ariosto's Orlando furioso. Orlando (1733), and Ariodante and Alcina in 1735 for the new opera house in Covent Garden. Each act also includes dance scenes composed for the famous dancer Marie Sallé and her troupe. John Rich had afforded the two theater stars Handel and Sallé for the new opera house after the great success and with the box office money from his Beggar's Opera   , as well as engaging the top singers of the time.
Princess Ginevra and Knight Ariodante are a couple. The Scottish king, Ginevra's father, agrees to the marriage and wants to cede his throne to the suitor. But Knight Polinesso wants Ginevra for himself. Polinesso is in turn loved by Dalinda, Ginevra's maid. A love that is not returned. With a wicked trick, Polinesso succeeds in making Ginevra appear unfaithful in Ariodante's eyes - only a series of coincidences bring about a happy ending for the desperate lovers.

Early music and old crafts, stage and puppet magic in one - this is the secret of the joint productions of the lautten compagney BERLIN and the puppet theater Carlo Colla e Figli. For over 200 years, the Milan company has been making the puppets dance. They are no ordinary marionettes, but fairytale creatures whose lives hang by a thread. The marionettes used to bring culture to the countryside that was otherwise reserved for the townspeople. They re-enacted the great operas of Verdi, which were played at the famous Scala, with their means. Carlo Colla e Figli can therefore rightly be called «dolls' Scala». The two ensembles have been working together for 10 years - after the common Handel productions Rinaldo (2011) and Giustino (2017).Ariodante now the third production of this kind.

English

Ariodante by Händel, From (2022/2022), Directed by Franco Citterio, Giovanni Schiavolin,, Conductor Wolfgang Katschner, Goethe-Theater, Bad Lauchstaedt, Germany

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Co-Producer

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues