Ezio (Aetius, HWV 29) is an opera by George Frideric Handel written for the Royal Academy of Music (1719) to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. Metastasio's libretto was partly inspired by Jean Racine's play Britannicus.[1] The same libretto had already been set by many other composers first of all Nicola Porpora who managed to preempt the official Rome premiere of Pietro Auletta's setting for 26 December 1728 with his own version (of a slightly edited copy of the libretto) for Venice on 20 November, a month earlier.[2] The libretto continued to be set and reset for another 50 years, including two versions of Ezio by Gluck. Handel's Ezio is considered one of the purest examples of opera seria with its absence of vocal ensembles.
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The opera received its first performance at the King's Theatre, London on 15 January 1732. It received a total of only 5 performances before falling from the repertoire, in what turned out to be Handel's greatest operatic failure. It did not receive another performance in London until 1977, by the Handel Opera Society at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Winton Dean has stated that the failure of the opera related to the artistic incompatibility between the more "classical" nature of the libretto and the more "romantic" nature of the music.[3] In May 2009 it was performed at the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen as part of the Schwetzingen Festival. The performance, staged by Günter Krämer, with Yosemeh Adjei singing Ezio,[4] was also broadcast on the German television network 3sat on 19 September 2009.
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 15 January 1732 (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Ezio, Roman general | alto castrato | Senesino |
| Fulvia, his lover | soprano | Anna Maria Strada |
| Valentiniano, Roman emperor | alto | Anna Bagnolesi |
| Onoria, his sister | alto | Francesca Bertolli |
| Massimo, Fulvia's father | tenor | Giovanni Battista Pinacci |
| Varo, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard | bass | Antonio Montagnana |
The protagonist is the fifth-century AD Roman general Flavius Aetius (Ezio in Italian), returned from his victory over Attila.