Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
Baldassar (HWV 61) è un oratorio di Georg Friedrich Händel . Il libretto in inglese era di Charles Jennens e Händel lo abbreviò notevolmente.[ 1] Il libretto di Jennens era basato sul racconto biblico della caduta di Babilonia per mano di Ciro il Grande e la conseguente liberazione della nazione giudaica, come si trova nel libro di Daniele .
Händel compose Baldassar nella tarda estate del 1744 contemporaneamente a Ercole , durante un periodo che Winton Dean chiama "il picco della vita creativa di Händel".[ 2] Il lavoro fu eseguito in prima la successiva Quaresima il 27 marzo 1745 al His Majesty's Theatre di Londra, con Ann Turner Robinson come Daniela, John Beard come Baldassar/Gobrias e Henry Theodore Reinhold come Ciro.[ 1] Il lavoro cadde nel dimenticatoio dopo la morte di Händel, con riprese nel Regno Unito nel 1847, 1848 e 1873.[ 3]
Overture
Accompagnato, Nitocris: "Vain, fluctuating state of human empire!" Aria, Nitocris: "Thou, God most high, and Thou alone" Recitativo, Nitocris e Daniele: "The fate of Babylon, I fear, is nigh." Aria, Daniele: "Lament not thus, O Queen, in vain!"
Coro of Babilonesi: "Behold, by Persia's hero made" Recitativo, Gobrias e Ciro: "Well may they laugh, from meagre famine safe" Accompagnato, Gobrias: "Oh, memory!" Aria, Gobrias: "Oppress'd with never-ceasing grief" Aria, Ciro: "Dry those unavailing tears" Recitativo, Ciro: "Be comforted: safe though the tyrant seem" Accompagnato, Ciro: "Methought, as on the bank of deep Euphrates" Recitativo, Ciro e Gobrias: "Now tell me, Gobrias, does not this Euphrates" Aria, Gobrias: "Behold the monstrous human beast" Recitativo, Ciro: "Can ye then think it strange, if drown'd in wine" Aria, Ciro: "Great God, who, yet but darkly known" Recitativo, Ciro: "My friends, be confident, and boldly enter" Coro di Persiani: "All empires upon God depend"
Aria, Daniele: "O sacred oracles of truth" Accompagnato, Daniele: "Rejoice, my countrymen! The time draws near" Aria, Daniele: "Thus saith the Lord to Ciro, his anointed" Coro di Ebrei: "Sing, O ye Heav'ns, for the Lord hath done it!"
Aria, Baldassar: "Let festal joy triumphant reign" Recitativo, Baldassar e Nitocris: "For you my friends, the nobles of my court" Aria, Nitocris: "The leafy honours of the field" Recitativo, Baldassar e Nitocris: "It is the custom, I may say, the law" Coro di Ebrei: "Recall, O king, thy rash command!" Recitativo, Nitocris e Baldassar: "They tell you true; nor can you be to learn" Duet, Nitocris e Baldassar: "O dearer than my life, forbear!" Coro di Ebrei: "By slow degrees the wrath of God to its meridian height ascends"
Coro of Persiani: "See, from his post Euphrates flies" Recitativo, Ciro: "Ye see, my friends, a path into the city" Aria, Ciro: "Amaz'd to find the foe so near" Coro di Persiani: "To arms, to arms, no more delay!"
Coro of Babilonesi: "Ye tutelar gods of our empire, look down" Aria, Baldassar: "Let the deep bowl thy praise confess" Accompagnato, Baldassar e Babilonesi: "Where is the God of Judah's boasted pow'r?" Recitativo, Baldassar: "Call all my Wise Men, Sorcerers, Chaldeans" Symphony (Enter Wise Men of Babylon) Recitativo, Baldassar e Wise Men: "Ye sages, welcome always to your king" Coro of Babilonesi: "Oh, misery! Oh terror, hopeless grief!" Recitativo, Nitocris e Baldassar: "O king, live for ever!" Aria, Daniele: "No, to thyself thy trifles be" Accompagnato, Daniele: "Yet, to obey His dread command" Recitativo, Nitocris: "Oh, sentence too severe, and yet too sure" Aria, Nitocris: "Regard, O son, my flowing tears"
Aria, Ciro: "O God of truth, O faithful guide" Recitativo, Ciro: "You, Gobrias, lead directly to the palace" Coro di Persiani: "O glorious prince, thrice happy they"
Aria, Nitocris: "Alternate hopes and fears distract my mind" Recitativo, Nitocris e Daniele: "Fain would I hope. It cannot surely be." Aria, Daniele: "Can the black AEthiop change his skin" Recitativo, Nitocris, Arioch, e Messenger: "My hopes revive, here Arioch comes!" Coro di Ebrei: "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth!"
Aria, Baldassar: "I thank thee, Sesach ! Thy sweet pow'r" A Martial Symphony (during which a battle is supposed, in which Baldassar and his attendants are slain)
Aria, Gobrias: "To pow'r immortal my first thanks are due" Recitativo, Ciro: "Be it thy care, good Gobrias, to find out" Aria, Ciro: "Destructive war, thy limits know" Duet, Nitocris e Ciro: "Great victor, at your feet I bow" Recitativo, Ciro e Daniele: "Say, venerable prophet, is there aught" Soli e coro: "Tell it out among the heathen" Accompagnato, Ciro: "Yes, I will rebuild thy city, God of Israel!" Soli e coro: I will magnify Thee, O God my king!
^ a b Friedrich Chrysander (a cura di), G.F. Handel, "Belshazzar" , Lipsia, Reprint by Kalmus Miniature Scores Melville, NY: Belwin Mills, 1864.
^ Winton Dean, Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques [Gli Oratori drammatici ed i Masque di Händel ] , Londra, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 435.
^ George Alexander Macfarren, Handel's Belshazzar , in The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular , 16 (364), 1º giugno 1873, p. 115.