L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

L' Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (HWV 55) is an oratorio in three parts by Georg Friedrich Händel.

Formation

Handel began composing the first part on January 19, 1740, ended it six days later. He presented the second part of February 2, the third on February 4 finished. He joined The instrumentation and filling of the middle voices from February 9.

The premiere of the work took place on 27 February at the Theatre in Lincoln 's Inn Fields instead. The soloists in this performance were:

• Elisabeth du Parc, called La France Sina (soprano )
• John Beard (tenor )
• Thomas Reinhold ( bass)
• A boy soprano

L' Allegro was a great success even at the first performances. In the first year five performances were given in January 1741, the Oratory was taken at the same theater again in the Schedule and this adds to some numbers. During the preparation time for the first performance of the Messiah came from December 1741 to March 1742 to reproductions in the New Music Hall in Dublin.

More performances took place in London in 1743, 1754 and 1755. These ideas for Handel followed the third part of Il Moderato away and added instead to the one-piece Ode for St. Cecilia.

Libretto

The source of the oratorio text is in the two seals L' Allegro ( cheerfulness ) and Il Penseroso (unhappiness ) in which John Milton 1632 allegorically described the contrast between the two moods.

Charles Jennens made ​​from these seals the libretto for the first two parts of the oratorio together. At the suggestion of Handel he wrote a third part Il Moderato ( moderation ), but is substantially less in scope than the first two parts.