Partenopei

Lore & Background

The opera, which is in three acts, is composed to an Italian libretto adapted by an unknown hand from a libretto originally written in 1699 by Silvio Stampiglia. It was Handel's first comic (or, rather, unserious) opera since the much earlier Agrippina. The opera was presented during the 1730 season at the King's Theatre when Handel was working in partnership with the director John James Heidegger. The score was completed by Handel just two weeks before the premiere.

In Their Own Story

The air in the Curva Sud is thick with salt spray and smoke from flares that paint the night sky in shades of azure and white. Thousands of voices merge into a single, deafening roar as the chant for 'O Re' echoes off the concrete walls of the San Paolo. A young boy clutches his father's hand, eyes wide, watching the players emerge from the tunnel in their sky-blue kits. The ground trembles not just from footsteps, but from the collective heartbeat of a city that refuses to bow. In this moment, history is not written in books; it is lived in the sweat on the pitch and the tears in the stands, proving that the spirit of Parthenope is immortal.

Reader's Guide

The opera is scored for two flutes, two oboes, bassoon, trumpet, two horns, strings and continuo (cello, lute, harpsichord). Many of the arias are shorter than in Handel's previous operas. The work contains an ensemble, a comic quartet, in the third act, and a battle scene in Act Two with orchestral passages interspersed with recitatives and ariosos.

Did You Know?

• The opera was originally proposed to the Royal Academy of Music in 1726 but rejected due to its frivolous nature.
• Partenope received seven performances at its original run in February 1730 and was revived in 1737.
• The work had its U.S. premiere in 1988 at Opera Omaha.
• A production by Christopher Alden, in English, was staged in 2008 by the English National Opera.