Amadigi Di Gaula

Amadigi di Gaula (HWV 11) is a magical opera in three acts, with music by George Frideric Handel. It was the fifth Italian opera that Handel wrote for London and was composed during his stay at Burlington House in 1715. The most intimate of Handel's operas, written for a small cast, is based on Amadis de Grèce, a French tragédie-lyrique by André Cardinal Destouches and Antoine Houdar de la Motte. Charles Burney maintained near the end of the eighteenth century, Amadigi contained "...more invention, variety and good composition, than in any one of the musical dramas of Handel which I have yet carefully and critically examined.”

The opera, one of Handel's most concise stage works, received its first performance in London at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket on 25 May 1715. Handel made prominent use of wind instruments, so the score is unusually colorful, and at points resembles the Water Music, which he composed only a few years later. An exceptional care was lavished to the production. Amadigi employs no voices lower than alto and it ends in a minor key. The opera was a success because of the visual side and received a known minimum of 17 further performances in London through 1717.