Oreste at Theater an der Wien

In 1734, George Frideric Handel created the three-act pasticcio Oreste with the theatre impresario and dancer John Rich, director of the new Covent Garden Theatre. For this work, Handel used music from his earlier operas. The libretto was based on the text written in 1723 by Giovanni Gualberto Barlocci for Rome that focuses not on Ifigenia, as is usual, but on her brother Oreste. A distinctive feature of the opera is the lengthy ballet scenes which were created for the prima ballerina Marie Salle. Although the opera was only performed three times, Oreste can be described as the most successful of all Handel's original pasticci.