the a's of opera

i'm reading the companion-book to the cd-set 'the a to z of opera' -- and it's really...a book -- 760 pages

well, i just got into 'c,' but...a couple of interesting things, from 'a'

seemed like half the operas...in the 'a' section...were by handel -- what the heck -- either the guy...wanted to hog the front of the alphabet (in opera catalogues),...wrote a million operas,...or...was going through the book of myths and legends...in alphabetical order -- the library...of great figures...and stories -- and...exhausted himself...before he got to the end...or very far...or something

turns out, he wrote 46 operas, 12 of them...begin with the letter 'a'

all his operas...were opera seria -- all, in three acts -- i guess the guy was serious

other oddity...from the book -- from the 'a' section -- there are 23 operas...about alexander the great -- all of them,...written in the 18th century

made me wonder, what was going on, in the 18th century,...for there to be such a fascination with alexander -- on the popular...and high-art...levels

of course, we've got, in the renaissance, the 'rediscovery' of the classics -- of the greeks and the romans -- but....

the earliest of the operas listed...about alexander...is by handel -- 1726 -- 'alessandro' -- based on the libretto by paolo antonio rolli -- based on ortensio mauro's 'la superbia d'alessandro'

in the opera, the great rival sopranos faustina bordoni and francesca cuzzoni...got to play out their jealous enmity...on stage, vying for alessandro's affections -- in india

the other 22 operas about alexander are based on the libretto 'alessandro nell'indie,' by pietro metastasio

so,...the particular focus of the fascination with alexander...was his time in india -- specifically, his encounter with king porus -- east meets west -- vice versa, i guess -- west, meet east -- east, meet west -- how do you do -- nice to meet you

this painting, 'alexander and porus,' was done by charles le brun, in 1673 -- maybe it had a big effect

i'm sure there were a lot of writings too -- exhibitions?... -- talks...discussions...tours...the whole thing

handel composed the second of those 22 operas (based on metastasio's libretto 'alessandro nell'indie') -- 'poro' -- in 1731

the first one...appeared the year before -- composed by leonardo vinci -- relation? coincidence?

no mention, on the wikipedia page for vinci, of any relationship -- he was born in strongoli, near the ball of the foot, and was educated in naples -- higher up..., in the shin

the artist/inventor/...everything...was born...much higher up -- near the knee -- i think -- whatever it is,...way up there...in the boot...leg -- in vinci, of course, 44 kilometers west of florence

on our day in rome (the penultimate stop in the cruise for my father's 80th), our tour guide paolo took us to an exhibit of his machines -- da vinci's, not paolo's

a tank

a music machine, being played by my niece

the composer...was prolific -- and well regarded -- churned out 37 operas, in less than 12 years

he died at 40 -- apparently poisoned by a man...whose wife may have been having an affair with vinci