HANDEL : FARAMONDO

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 6th of September 2009 at 3 - 5.30 pm

SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS (with photographs)

HANDEL: Faramondo, an opera in three acts
Faramondo................... Max Emanuel Cencic
Clotilda......................... Sophie Karthäuser
Rosimonda.................... Marina de Liso
Gustavo........................ Insung Sinn
Adolfo.......................... Philippe Jaroussky
Gernando...................... Xavier Sabata Corominas
Teobaldo...................... Fulvio Bettini
Childerico..................... Teresa Nesci
Italian-Swiss Radio Chorus, Lugano, I Barocchisti/Diego Fasolis

Is there no end to the number of Handel operas? This is the fifth to be added to the operawonk index. On the list I have seen, it is 39th out of 46 (to be followed by Serse (Xerxes) and Semele, to name the two best-known of the final bunch); so it is a mature work, and the music is rated as splendid.

Handel’s Faramondo was composed between 15 November and 24 December 1737. It set in a mythical period of the history of France, when a legendary king named Pharamond was ruler of the Franks, supposedly around 420. It had eight performances in 1738, and was then put to bed until 1976.

The story sounds like a farce, and I will not attempt to recount it (see the two synopses provided above); its basis is revenge (the planned vengeance of King Gustavo on Faramondo for the murder of one of his sons), and rivalry in love and war (there are two opposing military camps with lovers on each side separated from one another). The problems are all settled when it is revealed that there was a switch of infants (shades of Trovatore and Pinafore, but those names do not rhyme, remember) so the need for revenge is obviated.

This performance comes from soloists with the Italian-Swiss Radio Chorus, Lugano with I Barocchisti conducted by Diego Fasolis, and it is available on record.