Giustino HWV 37

Instrumentation:

Soprano solo (5), Mezzo-soprano solo (2), Tenor solo, Bass solo (2), Mixed choir (SATB), Recorder (2), Flute (2), Oboe solo, Oboe (2), Horn (2) (in F), Horn (2) (in H), Trumpet (2), Violin (3), Viola, Basso continuo

The historical-critical edition of the opera in the Halle Handel Edition is intended to help bring this “most agreeable” work closer to a contemporary audience. The main part of this volume reproduces the version of the premiere in its entirety for the first time and offers the opportunity to become acquainted with the first version in an appendix. It is somewhat more concise and compact, but above all dramaturgically more stringent than the version that was then heard on the London stage. For today's performers, both versions offer rich material for exciting productions, which may help this great heroic legend – aptly characterized by Anthony Hicks as a “theatrical extravaganza” – to become increasingly popular.