Operas and pastiches
Post categories: Suzanne Aspden
| 16:48 UK time, Monday, 12 January 2009
Before Christmas, 'Reiner Torheit' asked which operas were being included in the '40-plus' Radio 3 schedule. First, I should explain that, while Handel wrote 42 operas himself, a few are lost (only one of his four Hamburg operas survives - that's Almira). Then there are also the pasticci - assembled from his own works or the works of other composers (this was a common practice at the time). As I understand it, Radio 3 are making up the complement of operas by including some works that weren't strictly counted as operas in Handel's day - e.g. Semele - as well as doing one pasticcio. More will be revealed as the schedule unfolds!
Incidentally, on the question of recordings: what you buy depends very much on whether you're looking for completeness or a 'best of': I rather enjoyed the recording of Almira, but in any case it's the only one available at present, so it's that or nothing, if you want the opera. I should think that much the best thing to do is listen to the broadcasts, and make up your own mind as to which recordings you like!
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