Floridante (1721) was the second full length work which Handel composed for his opera company, the Royal Academy of Music (in between that and Radamisto in 1720 had come his one Act contribution to Muzio Scevola). This is apparently the first time it’s been performed at the London Handel Festival, and the only regret therefore is that it was a one-off concert performance rather than staged. The story, typical of Baroque opera seria, is a saga of dynastic strife and conflicted romantic interests, all brought about by the tyrannical, usurping King Oronte, who defeated and killed the rightful Persian king, Nino, and then adopted his daughter as his own, Elmira. She is betrothed to the general, Floridante, who has been successful in battle against Tyre. But Oronte has his eye on her instead and wants to marry her.
Christian Curnyn led a solid, efficient performance of the score with his ensemble, the Early Opera Company. Arias tended to pulse or lilt effectively, if not ravish with timbral contrast and surprises, though Handel’s settings are often a bit more concise than his usual, longer-structured da capo numbers. (Various commentators surmise that Handel may have adapted to the latest Italian operatic style brought to London by Giovanni Bononcini, with whom his compositional skills were soon in competition as, for example, in that composite version of Muzio Scevola.)
The title role (created by Handel for Senesino) was sung with dignified restraint by Hilary Summers, the generally low tessitura suiting her, as she swooped a little in the higher register. As Floridante’s betrothed, Elmira, Beth Taylor grew in assurance – her tone was effusive in her first aria, but subsequently she found more clarity and focus in faster paced or more vehement numbers (of which she has a few once she learns of Oronte’s designs on her and his attempt to banish Floridante). Her and Summers’s vocal lines locked sinuously in their sombre duet at the end of Act One, after Oronte’s schemes start to take hold.
As Oronte’s real daughter, Rossane, and her engaged partner, Timante, Rowan Pierce and Mhairi Lawson brought well matched brilliance and levity in those more highly pitched roles, that somewhat resemble the middling, less serious couple of the then just emerging format of opera buffa. Where Pierce revelled in colour and exuberance, Lawson exuded a more sustained purity. They had the opportunity to combine melodic lines beguilingly in a duet of their own, fusing pastoral charm with a certain triumphalism as horns featured in the accompaniment.
Jonathan Lemalu was purposeful as the calculating Oronte, even if a certain roughness caused some passages to lack agility and precision. Coralbo’s single aria was well projected by Matthew Durkan, with hearty, open-voiced ardour. Although routine in places, the performance overall still revealed an opera by Handel that has remained unfairly neglected.
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