About the work
"Riccardo Primo, re d'Inghilterra" is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel, with an Italian libretto by Paolo Antonio Rolli adapted from Francesco Briani's text "Isacio tiranno" (set by Antonio Lotti in 1710). Handel began composing in spring 1727 and finished a first version in May, but the death of King George I closed London's theatres; the opera finally opened at the King's Theatre on 11 November 1727, doubling as a tribute to the new king, George II, and to England, whose citizenship Handel had just acquired.
Plot
A storm off Cyprus wrecks the fleet of the English king Riccardo (Richard the Lionheart), who was sailing to fetch his betrothed, Costanza of Navarre. In disguise, he infiltrates the court of the tyrant Isacio, who holds Costanza captive and tries to pass off his own daughter Pulcheria as her. After a chain of intrigue and mistaken identity, Riccardo defeats Isacio and is reunited with Costanza.
Cultural significance
The subject was unusual in that it marked the only time in Handel's operatic career that he turned to English history. Despite this patriotic gesture and a role distribution carefully balanced between the rival sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, the opera failed to catch on: Handel never revived it, though he later recycled thirteen of its arias across eight subsequent productions.