Ariodante is an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.
The anonymous libretto was based a work by Antonio Salvi, it in turn adapted from Canti 5 and 6 Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. It was first performed in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 8 January 1734
Ariodante opened Handel's first season at Covent Garden and successfully competed against the rival Opera of the Nobility, supported by the Prince of Wales. Handel had the tacit and financial support of the King and Queen and, more vocally, of the Princess Royal.
Like Handel's other works in the opera seria genre, Ariodante, despite its initial success, fell into oblivion for more than two hundred years. In the 1970s, it began to be revived, and has now come to be considered one of Handel's finest operas.
Ariodante is part of the standard operatic repertoire.
There are a several recordings of it, and it is regularly performed.
