Imeneo

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Imeneo (Hymen) (HWV 41) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Silvio Stampiglia's Imeneo.

[edit] Performance history

The opera was first given at the Lincoln's Inn Fields in London on 22 November 1740, although Handel wrote the score in 1738. It was performed again on 13 December and then in Dublin in a concert version on 24 and 31 March 1742. The first modern production was in Halle on 13 March 1960.

[edit] Roles

		Premiere 1740
Imeneo	bass	William Savage
Tirinto	alto castrato	Giovanni Battista Andreoni
Rosmene -	soprano	Elisabeth Duparc, called "La Francesina"
Clomiri	soprano	Miss Edwards
Argenio	bass	Henry Theodore Reinhold

[edit] Sources

Imeneo by Anthony Hicks, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7