Rinaldo

Rinaldo was a huge success. Between the premiere on February 24th 1711 and June of the same year the opera was given fifteen times. Soon the celebrated arias like Cara sposa and Lascia ch'io pianga were being sung or played on every conceivable instrument the length and breadth of England. The astute publisher John Walsh made a mint out of his edition of the sinfonias and arias from Rinaldo arranged for a variety of instrumental combinations. The present edition is based on a version which bears the title: The most celebrated Aires and Duets in the Opera of Rinaldo- Curiously fitted and contriv'd for two Flutes and a Bass with their Symphony introduc'd in a compleat manner. This new edition is comprised of the overture and some of the arias from the above-mentioned, extremely unreliable publication, but at the same time it draws widely on Handel's original. Such errors as the numerous printing mistakes or wrong part writing have been emended without comment. Siegfried Petrenz's realization of the basso continuo is to a large extent based on the orchestral original.