Radamisto (HWV 12) 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. It was Handel's first opera for the Royal Academy of Music. The opera's plot is loosely based on incidents from Tacitus's Annals of Imperial Rome.

It was first performed at the King's Theatre, London on 27 April 1720, a performance attended by King George I and his son, the Prince of Wales,^[1] and was judged to be a success, resulting in 10 further performances. A revised version with different singers including the internationally renowned castrato Senesino in the first of many roles he performed in Handel's works was written for a revival on 28 December 1720. More revisions followed for yet another version presented in 1721. In 1728 Radamisto was again revised for another revival featuring the two famous prima donnas Cuzzoni and Faustina as well as Senesino. The first modern performance was in Göttingen on 27 June 1927.

As with most opere serie, Radamisto went unperformed for many years, but with the revival of interest in Baroque music and historically informed musical performance since the 1960s, Radamisto, like all Handel operas, receives performances at festivals and opera houses today.^[2] The first production in the US, in a semi-staged version, took place on 16 February 1980 in Washington, DC and the first fully staged presentation was given by Opera/Chicago in 1984.^[3] Among other productions, Radamisto was staged by Santa Fe Opera in 2008, by English National Opera in 2010^[4] and by Theater an der Wien in 2013.^[5] An acclaimed production of Radamisto (first version) was directed by Sigrid T’Hooft at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, in 2009. Fully conceived in period style (it took its cue from an original prompt book), T'Hooft's staging was revived and now ranks among the most significant examples of historically informed performance in opera.^[6]

Place: Armenia, Temple of Garni

Time: 53 A.D.

The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera Rinaldo. A tremendous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. In 1719, Handel was appointed music director of an organisation called the Royal Academy of Music (unconnected with the present day London conservatoire), a company under royal charter to produce Italian operas in London. Handel was not only to compose operas for the company but hire the star singers, supervise the orchestra and musicians, and adapt operas from Italy for London performance.^[9][10]

Radamisto was Handel's first opera for the Royal Academy and was an enormous success with London audiences,as Handel's first biographer John Mainwaring noted;

'Many (ladies), who had forc'd their way into the house with an impetuosity ill suited to their rank and sex, actually fainted through the excessive heat and closeness of it. Several gentlemen were turned back, who had offered forty shillings for a seat in the gallery, after having despaired of getting any in the pit or boxes'.^[7]

Lady Mary Cowper noted in her diary: "At night, Radamistus, a fine opera of Handel’s making. The King there with his ladies. The Prince in the stage-box. Great crowd."^[11]

In the opinion of 18th century musicologist Charles Burney Radamisto was "more solid, ingenious, and full of fire than any drama which Handel had yet produced in this country."^[12]

The opera is scored for strings, flute, two oboes, bassoon, two horns and continuo instruments (cello, lute, harpsichord).

Unusually for a Handel opera, the work contains a quartet, at the climax of the piece in Act Three. To Jonathan Keates, Radamisto is a work of the first stage of Handel's maturity as a composer, with its "masterly" invention and characterisation through music.^[11]