Dramma per musica in three acts
Music by Georg Friedrich Händel
Libretto by Pietro Metastasio
Concert performance in Italian with German surtitles

{oh!} Orkiestra
Conductor: Martyna Pastuszka

In late 1720s’ London, Handel’s operatic empire was facing a financial crisis: the castrato Senesino, his company’s principal draw, had turned his back on the city and Johann Christoph Pepusch's English-language Beggar’s Opera had shown audiences that an enjoyable evening at the theatre could be had even without Italian coloratura arias. Handel responded in his own way: he persuaded Senesino to return by promising him a particularly spectacular role. For the new opera he turned to Metastasio’s libretto Alessandro nell’Indie which portrays Alexander the Great’s military campaign in India. However, Handel shifted the perspective: Leonardo Vinci’s version – presented this season at the MusikTheater an der Wien as a staged production – centres on the eponymous hero Alessandro, while Handel focuses on the Indian king Poro, which is the role he wrote for Senesino. The premiere in 1731 was a triumph: it is on record that King George II enjoyed the work so much that he saw it nine times. In Vienna, the title role is played by one of the greatest countertenors of our day, Max Emanuel Cencic.