During Handel’s lifetime Ezio only received five performances, yet the work, which deals freely with an episode from the end of the Roman Empire, deserves to be rediscovered. This is now possible, using the Halle Handel Edition as a secure scholarly basis.

Friedrich Chrysander’s edition of Ezio, regarded as definitive for performance until now, matches the original version of the opera in the sequence of musical numbers, but only includes one of the four numbers in the appendix of the new volume of the Halle Handel Edition, namely a recitative. The version from Handel’s performances of the opera in January 1732 forms the main part of the new volume. The appendix contains the numbers left out during the work’s composition – the gavotte, the original sinfonia to the second act and two recitatives.

Handel probably composed Ezio between November 1731 and the beginning of January 1732. The first performance took place on 15 January 1732 in London in the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, following which it was only performed four more times during Handel’s lifetime in January 1732. The text set by Han­del was adapted from the “dramma per musica” Ezio by Pietro Metastasio. The prologue was set in Rome in the years 451–454. Here is a summary:

When Ezio, the famous leader of the imperial army under Valentiniano III, returned from battle on the Catalaunian Fields, where he had defeated Attila, the King of the Huns, and forced him to flee, he was accused of wrongdoing by the suspicious ruler and condemned to death.

The initiator of the intrigues against the innocent Ezio was Massimo, a Roman patrician who had previously been insulted by Valentiniano, who had attempted to seduce Massimos’s wife. Massimo attempted in vain to obtain Ezio’s help by murdering the hated ruler, at the same time, however, carefully concealing his desire for revenge. However, in the knowledge that the greatest obstacle to his plan was Ezio’s loyalty, he persuaded the emperor that Ezio was a criminal. He then incited the people to revolt against Valentinian by accusing him of being ungrateful and unjust. This is all based on historical fact, and the rest is probable

The characterization of the stage characters, all of whom are based on historical models except for Fulvia, Massimo’s daughter and Ezio’s beloved, corresponds with what is known about them. However, even in the prologue the historical events were treated quite freely. In order to be able to find the rest reasonably plausible, one has to understand the invented, exciting plot of the opera with its happy end as set at a time before Ezio’s murder. In reality, Valentiniano himself killed Ezio in 454, then in 455 Massimo had Valentiniano murdered, became emperor himself and a little later, during the conquest of Rome by the vandals, was killed by the Romans, events which to a certain extent formed the prelude to the final phase of the fall of the Roman Empire. In Ezio however, as was generally the case with dramatic works of the Baroque period, there is no attempt at a reconstruction of historic events: the work is concerned with moral instruction, achieved here through criticism of exaggerated mistrust and the betrayal and praise of self-sacrificing truth. Ezio is one of Handel’s best works: in the first act, the pastoral arias “Quanto mai felici siete” (Onoria) and “Se povero il ruscello” (Massimo) stand out. The star numbers in the second act are the three accompagnati and Valentinian’s pleading “Vi fida lo sposo”, Ezio’s resigned “Recagli quell’acciaro” and Varo’s majestic “Nasce al bosco in rosca cuna”. In the third act, Ezio’s “Se la mia vita” – one of Handel’s most magnificent compositions – , Valentiniano’s angst-ridden “Per tutto il timore”, Massimo’s heartfelt “Tergi l’ingiuste lagrime”, Fulvia’s shocking mad scene “Misera, dove son?” and Varo’s triumphant “Già risonar dintorno” form one of those strings of pearls only rarely found in the whole of music.

Michael Pacholke

from: [t]akte 2/2009