| Label: SOMM RECORDS Catalog: SOMMCD227/8 Format: CD 2 CD - Label: Somm Records - SOMMCD227/8 - - Handel, George Frideric - Orchestra: London Handel Orchestra - Conductor: Denys DarlowPremiere recording of this opera.
Silla, the slightly-flawed and somewhat mysterious early London opera by Handel, receives a fine, if not overwhelming, performance here by Darlow and the London Handel Orchestra. This recording, taken from a live performance in 2000, remains (at this time) the only complete version in the catalog. The mystery is two- or even three-fold. First, a complete score was lost until recently located in a California library. Second, we have no record of a public performance in 1713, the opera's completion date, or even any mention in the London press of the time. Thirdly, (and this is also the major flaw), why would Handel choose to write a work about an unredeemed bloodthirsty Roman tyrant (the actual historical figure, Sulla)`who was possibly a wee bit paranoid?
Silla, however, has one very noteworthy characteristic in the Handel opera canon: almost all the music appears to have been (knock on wood!) originally composed for this work; no borrowing or self-filching. In fact, Handel immediately mined Silla for music in his next opera, Amadigi di Gaula. The workbook (score and stage direction) found in the Huntington library in California in 1969 not only allowed Darlow to reconstruct the show, it also contained a clue to the work's background. The workbook had a front-page dedication the the Duc d'Aumont, the recently-named French ambassador to England. This strongly suggests the reason for the lack of mention of Silla: instead of being a public for-profit venture, this was a privately contracted special occasion opera--either put on for the Duc or by the Duc for English bigwigs as a one-shot deal. For Handel, perhaps not a lot of money, but, depending on who was in the audience, maybe a lot of high-class PR. Anyway, we can only speculate--until some revealing London diary or daybook is unearthed.
Price: $42.98 |