Alcina (HWV 34) (Full Score, hardback)

Handel Alcina (HWV 34) (Full Score, hardback)
Opera in 3 Acts.

Full score (BA4061-01) and vocal score (BA4061-90) available for sale; performance material (BA4061-72) available for hire.

On 12 April 1735 Mary Pendarves, who had met Handel while still a child and later became one of his staunchest friends and admirers, wrote to her mother from London: “Yesterday morning my sister and I went [...] to Mr. Handel’s house to hear the first rehearsal of the new opera Alcina.  I think it  the best he ever made, but I have thought so of so many, that I will not say positively ’tis the finest, but ’tis so fine I have not words to describe it.”  Handel's famous “magic opera” Alcina is a jewel both among Handel's works and among Baroque operas altogether.

The Halle Handel Edition is a complete critical edition which serves the needs of scholars and performers by drawing on all available sources and the latest musicological findings. Within each volume the works appear, wherever possible, in chronological order; the numbering of the works follows the Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis (HWV). In addition to the finished compositions, the edition also includes alternative versions, discarded sections, drafts, fragments, and, since 1991, the volumes in Series I and II include the printed libretto of the first performance in facsimile.

The editions of vocal works contain German and, if necessary, English text translation. Instructive examples of the source material (in facsimile) and a critical report (Ger/Eng) are included in the volumes.