45TH INTERNATIONAL HANDEL FESTIVAL by Händel, From (2023/2023), Directed by Carlos Wagner, Conductor Carlo Ipata, Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Germany

When George Frideric Handel was looking for new singing talent in Dresden in 1719, he saw a performance of Antonio Lotti's opera Teofane there . Not only did Handel find what he was looking for in Dresden - he was later able to engage three of the performances there in London - the opera must also have had a lasting impression on him. Because in Handel's libretto to Ottoneby Nicola Francesco Haym is an adaptation of the Dresden libretto by Stefano Pallavicino. The partly historical material begins with the marriage of the Roman-German heir to the throne Otto II with the East Roman princess Theophanu in 972. In the opera, the king's widow Gismonda wants her son Adelberto to sit on the imperial throne instead of Otto and weaves an intrigue in which Adelberto, posing as the emperor, is supposed to marry the princess. Teofane, however, quickly becomes suspicious. And Ottone knows only one goal: to regain his bride and his throne. The world premiere of Ottone, Re di Germania in London in 1723 is considered to be seminal for Handel's operatic output in many respects. With the castrato Senesino and the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, he employed two artistic personalities for the first time, with whom he was to experience the greatest successes of his artistic career in a mutual relationship. Ottone was a huge success in London and remains a jewel in the composer's early work. Handel appears in Ottonediscovering something like a new style - in comparison to Handel's previous operas, the music is often characterized by a pleasantness and lightness of gesture. It's not for nothing that it contains so many melodies that London called "favorite songs" like never before.