Tamerlano ("Tamerlane", HWV 18) is an opera seria in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music theatre company, with music by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's "Tamerlano" together with another libretto entitled "Bajazet" after Nicolas Pradon's "Tamerlan, ou La Mort de Bajazet".
George Frideric Handel's operas comprise 42 musical dramas that were written between 1705 and 1741 in various genres.
 He began composing operas in Germany and then for a brief time in Italy to modest success.
 It was not until he moved to England that he found great success in the genre.
 His first opera in England, "Rinaldo" (1711), was met with enthusiasm, and several more Italian operas soon followed.
 However, Handel's place as the central figure of opera in England during the eighteenth century was not solidified until, under the influence of Thomas Arne, he began composing large-scale works with English language texts.
 Though almost all his English language works are technically oratorios and not operas, several of them, such as "Semele" (1743), have become an important part of the opera repertoire.
 Handel's first opera (opera seria - serious Italian opera) was "Almira" (1705).
Rinaldo (HWV 7) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, composed in 1711, and was the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage.
 The libretto was prepared by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill, and the work was first performed at the Queen's Theatre in London's Haymarket on 24 February 1711.
 The story of love, war and redemption, set at the time of the First Crusade, is loosely based on Torquato Tasso's epic poem "Gerusalemme liberata" ("Jerusalem Delivered"), and its staging involved many original and vivid effects.
 It was a great success with the public, despite negative reactions from literary critics hostile to the contemporary trend towards Italian entertainment in English theatres.
In "Armida", Sacchini incorporated many elements of French opera, including frequent use of chorus, ballet, and theatrical spectacle on a grand scale.
 Sacchini later wrote two more operas loosely based on the same story from Tasso: the 1780 London work "Rinaldo", and his first French opera, "Renaud", which was dedicated to Marie Antoinette.
Jane Barbier (d ?
London, ?
will proved 9 Dec 1757) was an English contralto of the 18th century, best known for her performances in the operas of George Frederic Handel.
 She created the roles of Dorinda and Arcano ("Il pastor fido" and "Teseo", respectively), and also sang in "Rinaldo".
 After leaving Italian opera she performed in the masques Johann Pepusch, and worked for John Rich in various pantomimes and English-language operas.
 Thomas Arne's "Rosamond" (1733), where she took the role of King Henry, marked the end of her successful career, and after this she largely disappears from the historical record.
Il gran Tamerlano ("The Great Tamerlane") is an opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček.
 Its libretto was written by Agostino Piovene.
 All of Mysliveček's operas are of the serious type in Italian referred to as opera seria.
 Generally this style favored high vocal ranges, both for male and female singers, but for the character of Bajazette, emperor of the Turks, the composer created the only substantial role for a bass singer that appears in any of his operas.
Sara Mingardo (born 2 March 1961) is an Italian classical contralto who has had an active international career in concerts and operas since the 1980s.
 Her complete recording of Anna in Hector Berlioz's "Les Troyens" won a Gramophone Award and both the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording and the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 2002.
 Some of the other roles she has performed on stage or on disc include Andronico in "Tamerlano", Mistress Quickly in "Falstaff", Rosina in "The Barber of Seville", and the title roles in "Carmen", "Giulio Cesare", "Riccardo Primo", and "Rinaldo".
 She has also recorded several Vivaldi cantatas, Bach cantatas, and such concert works as Mozart's "Requiem", Rossini's "Stabat Mater", and Vivaldi's "Gloria" among others.
Marcello Bernardini (or Marcello da Capua; near Capua, 1730 or 1740 – around 1799) was an Italian composer and librettist.
 Little is known of him, save that he wrote 37 operas in his career.
 His father was most likely the composer Rinaldo di Capua.
Nicola Francesco Haym (6 July 1678 – 31 July 1729) was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theatre manager and performer, and numismatist.
 He is best remembered for adapting texts into libretti for the London operas of George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini.
 Libretti that he provided for Handel included those for "Giulio Cesare", "Ottone", "Flavio", "Tamerlano", "Rodelinda", and several others; for Bononcini, he produced two, "Calfurnia" and "Astianatte".
Armida al campo d'Egitto is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to a libretto by Giovanni Palazzo.
 It was first performed during the Carnival season of 1718 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice.
 Vivaldi's version is different from the more than 50 operas whose themes derive in varying degrees from the story of Rinaldo and Armida in Torquato Tasso's epic poem "La Gerusalemme liberata" ("Jerusalem Delivered").
 Unlike the more than 50 operas based on the romance of Rinaldo and Armida, Vivaldi's version starts during previous events before the war against the Crusaders.
 Armida was revived for the Carnival season of 1738, with much of the music rewritten, and arias by Leonardo Leo added.
 Act II of the original version of the opera is now lost.

Question: Who wrote the operas "Tamerlano" and "Rinaldo"?
Answer: George Frideric Handel