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Home » Composers » German Composers » GF Handel » Handel Operas » Il Pastor Fido
Il Pastor Fido
By George Frideric Handel (Georg Friedrich Händel)
Scores
Handel, Il Pastor Fido - Chrysander (HG) score of the first version (1712) (pdf).
Recordings
 Handel.
Il Pastor Fido - First version, HWV 8a, London
1712. Harmonia Mundi HMU 907585/86 (2 CDs, March 2012).
Video of recording session in the historic Temple
Church, London. David Bates,
La
Nuova Musica. Amarilli: Lucy Crowe, soprano;
Mirtillo: Anna Dennis, soprano; Eurilla: Katherine
Manley, soprano; Silvio: Clint Van Der Linde,
countertenor; Dorinda: Madeleine Shaw, mezzo-soprano;
Tireno: Lisandro Abadie, baritone. Handel's Italian pastoral was a flop in London as a
followup to his herioc and bombastic Rinaldo. A
critic wrote: "The Scene represented only ye
Country of Arcadia. ye Habits were old. -- ye Opera
Short." The first version of Il Pastor Fido has
little in common musically with the elaborate 1734 third
version, an opera-ballet, the only version recorded
previously.
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 Handel.
Terpsichore. (HWV 8b, London 1734). Prologue to the third
version of Il Pastor Fido. Plus orchestral music from
Alcina and Act 2 ballet music from Ariodante.
Hungaroton HCD 31193 (1 CD 1993).
Details. Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria. Erato: Katalin
Farkas, soprano; Apollo: Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor.
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 Handel.
Il Pastor Fido. (HWV 8c - third version, London, November
1734). Hungaroton SLPD 12912-14 (3 LPs 1988) & 12912-13 (2 CDs).
Details. Nicholas McGegan, Capella Savaria. Mirtillo: Paul
Esswood, countertenor; Amarilli: Katalin Farkas, soprano;
Dorinda: Márta Lukin, mezzo-soprano; Silvio: Gábor Kállay,
tenor; Eurilla: Mária Flohr, mezzo-soprano; Tirenio: József
Gregor, bass.
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Famous Anecdote
"The Scene represented only ye Country of Arcadia. ye Habits were old. -- ye Opera Short." Coleman Opera Register (1712, quoted by Dean & Knapp, p. 215.
Original Cast
1712: Mirtillo: Valeriano Pellegrini, soprano castrato; Amarilli: Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti, soprano; Dorinda: Jane Barbier, contralto; Silvio: Valentino Urbani, alto castrato; Eurilla: Margherita de l'Epine, soprano; Tirenio: Richard Leveridge, bass.
May 1734: Mirtillo: Giovanni Carestini, alto castrato; Amarilli: Anna Strada, soprano; Dorinda: Maria Caterina Negri, contralto; Silvio: Carlo Scalzi, alto castrato; Eurilla: Margherita Durastanti, mezzo-soprano; Tirenio: Gustavus Waltz, bass.
November 1734: Same except Silvio: John Beard, tenor; Eurilla: Rosa Negri, contralto. Terpsichore: Apollo: Carestini; Erato: Strada; Terpsichore: Marie Sallé (ballet).
Related Operas
Colin de Blamont. Les Festes grecques et romaines (Ballet héroïque, Paris 1723). The prologue was the model for Handel's Terpsichore.
 Albinoni.
Il Nascimento dell'Aurora (Festa pastorale, Barcelona
1708). Oehms Classics (2 CDs, November 2007). René Clemencic,
Clemencic Consort. Apollo: Terry Wey, countertenor; Dafne:
Krisztina Jónás, soprano; Zeffiro: Radu Marian, sopranist;
Flora: Adrineh Simonian, soprano; Peneo / Fiume: Gernot
Heinrich, tenor. While not related, this Italian pastoral has
many of the same features as the first version of Il Pasto
Fido. The small scale production was well performed and
recorded.
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References
Dean & Knapp. Handel's Operas, 1704-1726. (Oxford University Press 1995 (1987)).
Winton Dean. Handel's Operas, 1726-1741 (Boydell Press 2006).
R. Strohm, "Handel and his Italian opera texts." Essays on Handel and the Italian Opera. (Oxford University Press 1985).