''(The Cheerful Man, the Thoughtful Man and the Moderate Man)'',
HWV 55, is a
pastoral ode by
George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of
John Milton.
History
Handel composed the work over the period of 19 January to 4 February 1740,
[Michael O'Connell, John Powell, "Music and Sense in Handel's Setting of Milton's ''L'Allegro'' and ''Il Penseroso''" (Autumn 1978). ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'', 12 (1): pp. 16–46.] and it was premiered on 27 February 1740 at the Royal Theatre of
Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the urging of one of Handel's librettists,
Charles Jennens, Milton's two poems, "
L'Allegro" and "
il Penseroso", were arranged by
James Harris,
interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton's poems (L'Allegro or the "Joyful man" and il Penseroso or the "Contemplative man"). The first two movements consist of this dramatic dialog between Milton's poems. In an attempt to unite the two poems into a singular "moral design", at Handel's request, Jennens added a new poem, "il Moderato", to create a third movement. The popular concluding aria and chorus, "As Steals the Morn" is adapted from
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
The Tempest'', V.i.65–68.
Michael O'Connell and John Powell have published an analysis of Handel's setting of the text in his musical treatment.
Dramatis Personae
* Soprano I
* Soprano II
* Alto (some versions only)
* Tenor
* Bass
* Chorus
There are no characters, no specific 'L'Allegro" or "Penseroso". The "drama" comes from alternating episodes representing the humors. Some versions give arias to different soloists. For instance, the "da capo" version of the aria "Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures" is sung by a soprano (Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, 1980) but the truncated recitative version is sung by a bass (Nelson, Ensemble Orchestra de Paris, 2000). Also, all soloists sing in the "il Moderato" section.
Dance choreography
In 1988,
Mark Morris choreographed a dance performance to accompany the music and poetry.
Review/Dance; Mark Morris Interprets Handel
Kisselgoff, Anna, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 8 October 1990
References
External links
* Full-text libretto hosted at wikisource
Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...
.
Score
of ''L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato'' (ed. Friedrich Chrysander, Leipzig 1859)
Full-text libretto
hosted by Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
.
* Full-text of Milton's L'Allegro and il Penseroso a
Project Gutenberg
* Text and Commentary on L'Allegro a
Dartmouth.edu
* Text and Commentary on il Penseroso a
Dartmouth.edu
by Boston Cecilia.
Notes by Music with Ease
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
Oratorios by George Frideric Handel
1740 oratorios