George Frideric Handel (1685-1759):
Cara sposa, amante cara (with da capo ornamentation)
(from Rinaldo) (1711, rev. 1731)
Text:  Giacomo Rossi, based on a scenario by Aaron Hill, 
after Torquato Tasso?s La Gerusalemme liberata

Original Key/Recorded Key:  E Minor
Teach-Track begins:  m. 1, second beat (see N.B. below)
Accompaniment Track begins:  same as teach-track
Pianist:  Daniel Michalak

N.B.  The introduction to this aria is here performed as it actually appears in the original orchestral score (and, thus, in any live performance with orchestra): with a quarter-note rest (not a chord) on the downbeat of m. 1.  The LH octave which appears on this downbeat in the ?old? Schirmer mezzo-soprano anthology is a well-intended but misleading bit of editorial creative license, evidently added to make the 3/4 meter immediately clear, and thus to make it easier for the singer to know when to come in.  In our opinion this extra chord is an unnecessary ?crutch?: after listening to the correct introduction a few times (and, if necessary, pretending that the orchestra begins playing on the downbeat of a 2/4 measure), it?s surprisingly easy to feel where the actual downbeats fall.  (If you don?t already know the piece well, we strongly encourage you to practice with the teach-track until you can confidently enter on the correct beat.)  The other argument against playing the added downbeat, of course, is that it is unmusical: it interferes with the identity of the melodic lines as Handel passes them in quasi-fugal imitation from one string section to another (m. 1, m. 3, etc.), and it sounds both redundant and awkward as one moves from the end of the B-section to the return of the opening A-section.


Notes © 1999  by Daniel O. Michalak