L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
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L'Allegro, il Pensieroso ed il Moderato (HWV 55) is a pastoral ode by George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of John Milton. Handel composed the work over the period of 19 January to 4 February 1740[1], and the work was premiered on 27 February 1740 at the Royal Theatre of Lincoln's Inn Fields. One of Handel's librettists, Charles Jennens, arranged Milton's two poems, L'Allegro and il Penseroso, interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton's poems (L'Allegro or the "Joyful man" and il Pensieroso or the "Contemplative man"). The first two movements consist of this dramatic dialog between Milton's poems. In an attempt to unite the two poems into a singular "moral design", Jennens added a new poem, "il Moderato", to create a third movement.
Michael O'Connell and John Powell have published an analysis of Handel's setting of the text in his musical treatment.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Dramatis Personae
- L'Allegro (tenor)
- Il Pensieroso (soprano)
- Il Moderato (bass)
- Chorus
[edit] Dance choreography
In 1988, Mark Morris choreographed a dance performance to accompany the music and poetry.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Michael O'Connell, John Powell, "Music and Sense in Handel's Setting of Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso" (Autumn 1978). Eighteenth-Century Studies, 12' (1): pp. 16–46.
- ^ Review/Dance; Mark Morris Interprets Handel By ANNA KISSELGOFF, New York Times, October 8, 1990
[edit] External links
- Full-text libretto hosted at wikisource.
- Score of L'Allegro, il Pensieroso ed il Moderato (ed. Friedrich Chrysander, Leipzig 1859)
- Full-text libretto hosted by Stanford University.
- Full-text of Milton's L'Allegro and il Pensieroso at Project Gutenberg.
- Text and Commentary on L'Allegro at Dartmouth.edu
- Text and Commentary on il Pensieroso at Dartmouth.edu
- Program notes by Boston Cecilia.
- Notes by Music with Ease.
- L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
