For a long time, a large portion of Handel’s early opera Rodrigo was thought to have been lost. It was not until 1974 that the printed libretto turned up again and nine years later the third act was found in the Earl of Shaftesbury’s Handel collection. On August 29, 1984, finally, the work was revived during the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music and in 2019 it’s on the programme at the Göttingen International Handel Festival. The opera narrates a freely adapted version of the end to the regency of the Last Visigoth King Roderich. In the libretto by Francesco Silvani, however, the reason behind it is less the lust for power on the part of his opponents than the thirst for vengeance of his spurned mistress. It was back in 1707 in Rome that George Frideric Handel wrote Rodrigo.
For a long time, a large portion of Handel’s early opera Rodrigo was thought to have been lost. It was not until 1974 that the printed libretto turned up again and nine years later the third act was found in the Earl of Shaftesbury’s Handel collection. On August 29, 1984, finally, the work was revived during the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music and in 2019 it’s on the programme at the Göttingen International Handel Festival.
Ambroisie presents a new edition of one of Handel's Italian period masterpieces, Rodrigo, with an exceptional cast led by Maria Riccarda Wesserling in the title role, María Bayo as his wife Esilena, Sharon Rostorf-Zamir as his young lover Florinda and Max Emanuel Cencic as Fernando. Following Amadigi di Gaula earlier this year, Rodrigo is the second Handel opera on the label conducted by Eduardo López Banzo. The release follows a European tour with the same cast and orchestra, Al Ayre Español, resulting in an interpretation that will undoubtedly lead to a new understanding of the piece almost exactly 300 years after it was written.