Ariodante

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Ariodante (HWV 33) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

The opera was first performed in the Covent Garden Theatre, London, on 8 January 1735.

Ariodante opened Handel's first season at Covent Garden and successfully competed against the rival Opera of the Nobility, supported by the Prince of Wales. Handel had the tacit and financial support of the King and Queen and, more vocally, of the Princess Royal.

Like Handel's other works in the opera seria genre, Ariodante, despite its initial success, fell into oblivion for more than two hundred years. In the 1970s, it began to be revived, and has now come to be considered one of Handel's finest operas.

There are several recordings of it, and it is regularly performed.

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