- Handel’s opera Berenice, regina d’Egitto (Berenice, Queen of Egypt)1 was first performed at Covent Garden on May 18, 1737. Handel began composing this opera on Dec.18, 1736 and completed in on Jan. 27, 1737.2
- The opera only received four performances, perhaps because Handel was not able to give much attention to the production: four days before the premiere he experienced a health problem which created temporary paralysis in his right hand.3
- Story: A fictionalized account of Cleopatra Berenice, who ascended the Egyptian throne in 81 BCE. The plot concerns the Roman and Egyptian political intrigues surrounding the queen’s choice of husband.4
- Together, the Ouverture, Minuet and Gigue form the 3-movement instrumental introduction to Berenice.5 Score
- In 21st C. parlance, Handel might have called the whole thing an “overture,” as in, the instrumental intro to a show. In the Baroque, an Ouverture (or French Overture)6 was also a form consisting of a slow dotted introduction followed by fugal material, and that’s how Handel uses the term here.
Sources
- Anthony Hicks, “Berenice,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed October 18, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002169.
- Anthony Hicks, “Handel [Händel, Hendel], George Frideric,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 18, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040060.
- Hicks, “Berenice,” Grove Music Online.
- Ibid.
- Christopher Hogwood, liner notes to Pachelbel: Canon, The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood, L’Oiseau Lyre 410 553-2, CD, 1983.
- Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., s.v. “Overture (I)” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).
Cut IDs
19388