TESEO

:''For the missile, see Teseo.''
'''Teseo''' (or 'Theseus') is an opera seria in five acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Philippe Quinault's Thésée.
It was Handel's third London opera, intended to follow the success of Rinaldo after the unpopular Il pastor fido.

Contents

Performance history

Roles

Sources

Performance history

The opera was first given at the Queen's Theatre in London on 10 January 1713 and on 14 further occasions in the following months. The singers included the castratos Valeriano Pellegrini and Valentino Urbani. There were no further revivals until it was rediscovered and performed under Fritz Lehmann in Göttingen on 29 June 1947. It is now rarely performed, and the next known performance this year will be by English Touring Opera in October and November 2007.

Roles

★ ''Teseo'' - (soprano castrato)

★ ''King Egeo'' - (alto castrato)

★ ''Princess Agilea'' - (soprano)

★ ''Clitia'' - (soprano)

★ ''Arcano'' - (alto)

★ ''Medea'' - (soprano)

★ ''Priest of the goddess Minerva'' (bass)

Sources

''Teseo'' by Anthony Hicks, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7