The choice of the subject of Ariadne was a challenge to Handel, whose Arianna in Creta was completed by 5 October 1733.[1] Handel's Arianna in Creta was based on Pietro Pariati's much-set Arianna e Teseo, in the later of two versions by Leonardo Leo (1729). This was a libretto which Porpora himself had also used for his own Arianna e Teseo (1721).[2] Handel's choice of libretto obliged Porpora to turn to Rolli's libretto which was modeled not on Pariati but on Stampa's libretto to Giovanni Porta's dramma pastorale, Arianna.[3][4]
Act 1
Overture
Allegro
Scene 1: Ahi! Che langue oppresso il core (Arianna)
Scene 1: L'un minaccia, l'altra alletta (Arianna)
Scene 1: Ahi! Che langue (Arianna)
Scene 2: Cadete a colpi d'Ateniese braccio (Teseo)
Scene 2: Aria: Ho vinto, ma non gia (Teseo)
Scene 3: Figlio d'Ixion, Re dei Lapiti (Piritoo)
Scene 3: Aria: Piu l'impresa perigli n'appresta (Piritoo)
Scene 4: Ecco la piu opportuna aita (Onaro)
Scene 4: Aria: Orgogliose procellose (Onaro)
Scene 5: So che il tuo sol valor (Piritoo)
Scene 5: Aria: Pensat'a vendicar (Antiope)
Scene 6: Grazie a te dello scampo (Teseo)
Scene 6: Aria: Nume che reggi il mare (Teseo)
Scene 7: Il tuo dolce mormorio (Arianna)
Scene 7: Recitative: Lieto ritorno all'alma mia (Teseo)
Scene 7: Aria: D'aura gioconda (Onaro)
Scene 7: Recitative dopa l'aria: Di dolcissimi affetti (Teseo)
Scene 7: Duet: In amoroso petto (Arianna, Teseo)
Act 2
Scene 1: Cotesto e il padiglion (Antiope)
Scene 1: Aria: Gia lo so (Antiope)
Scene 2: Misera! Che ascoltai (Arianna)
Scene 2: Aria: Va', mancator di fe (Arianna)
Scene 3: Egli e desso (Piritoo)
Scene 3: Aria: Giurasti fede (Antiope)
Scene 3: Aria: A contesa di due belle (Piritoo)
Scene 4: Ragione e onor vogliono (Arianna)
Scene 4: Aria: Un altro oggetto puo (Teseo)
Scene 4: Recitative: Agitata alma mia (Arianna)
Scene 4: Aria: Miseri sventurati (Arianna)
Scene 6: Onaro qui venir m'impose (Teseo)
Scene 6: Recitative: Teseo, gia tutte a scolorir le cose (Nume Libero)
Essays on Handel and Italian Opera, Reinhard Strohm (1985) p. 183 ISBN0521264286 "Porpora was now chief conductor of the Opera of the Nobility and his setting of a new drama by Rolli on the subject of Ariadne (Arianna in Nasso) was a deliberate challenge to Handel, whose Arianna was already completed on 5 October 1733. The very fact of Handel's having anticipated him obliged Porpora to set a different Ariadne text, although a comparison of his two scores suggests ..."
Con Che Soavità: Studies in Italian Opera, Song, and Dance, 1580-1740ISBN0198163703Iain Fenlon, Tim Carter, Nigel Fortune (1995) "Only two operas were given, but both settings were commissioned from Neapolitan composers. The libretto of Porpora's Arianna e Teseo, in autumn, was a reworking of Pietro Pariati's Teseo in Creta (1715, Vienna) following, with slight alterations, a revision made by an unknown librettist for the Teatro S. Bartolomeo in Naples in 1721. Here, Leonardo Leo had arranged the music as a pasticcio, with many arias of his own, and in 1729 he returned to the libretto, giving it a new setting all ..."
Helen M. Greenwald The Oxford Handbook of Opera 2014 ISBN0195335538 p. 148: "Rolli's libretto is modeled not on Pariati but on Stampa's libretto to Giovanni Porta's dramma pastorale, Arianna"
Colin Timms, Bruce Wood Music in the London Theatre from Purcell to HandelISBN1108124569 (2017) "It should be remembered that the choice of Arianna in Creta was not necessarily influenced by royal wishes (Handel found the libretto most probably in Rome in early 1729) and that Nicola Porporaʼs opera Arianna in Nasso was a spin-off from it not vice versa.
