Handel: Parnasso in festa, HWV 73

Description

Handel's three-part serenata Parnasso in festa was premiered in March 1734 for the wedding of Princess Anne and Prince William IV of Orange. The music is largely based on the English oratorio Athalia. The Italian libretto, by Giacomo Rossi, takes up the Greek myth of the wedding of Thetis and Peleus. As so often in Handel's case, the work was subjected to three large-scale revisions by 1741.

This vocal score is based on the Urtext from the Halle Handel Edition, the first to offer a scholarly-critical musical text for the complete serenata. The most significant changes in the later versions are reproduced in an appendix.