Radamisto (Handel)
Videos
Radamisto is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on L'amor tirannico, o Zenobia by Domenico Lalli and Zenobia by Matteo Noris.
George Frideric Handel
A caricature of Margherita Durastanti, who created the role of Radamisto in the premiere of the opera, and sang the role of Zenobia in the 1720 revision.
Statue of Tiridates I of Armenia in the park of the Palace of Versailles
Nicolas Poussin – Queen Zenobia Found on the Banks of the Araxes
Senesino
Videos
Francesco Bernardi, known as Senesino, was an Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel. He was also involved in a p
Senesino c. 1720
Senesino in 1735, by Van Haecken after Hudson
Portrait of the contralto castrato Francesco Bernardi, better known under his stage name Senesino; at the same time a parody of the castrati and their singing – and the wealth they earned with it. The lines beneath the portrait read, in Italian and English: "Renown'd Sienna gave him birth and name / Kind Heaven his Voice and Harmony his Fame / While here the Great and Fair their Tribute bring / The Deaf may wonder whence his Merits spring / But all think Fortune just, that hear him sing".