Scherza infida

Continuing its celebration of the operas Handel wrote for Covent Garden, The Royal Opera presents Ariodante in concert. Watch at
Ariodante was the first opera written by Handel for the first theatre on the current Royal Opera House site in 1735 and has not been performed at Covent Garden since. These concert performances bring together singers Paula Murrihy, Chen Reiss, Gerald Finley, Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies, Ed Lyon and the Royal Opera Chorus with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Baroque music specialist Christian Curnyn.

Set in medieval Scotland and based on a sixteenth-century epic poem, the same source as Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Ariodante tells the story of a prince, in love with the daughter of the King, who is driven to despair by a false accusation of his loved one’s infidelity and finally reunited with her when the treachery is revealed.

The opera contains some of Handel’s most beautiful music with wonderful numbers for the title role including the haunting scena ‘E vivo ancora?... Scherza infida’ (and to go on living... a treacherous joke) and the bravura aria ‘Dopo notte’.

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