Oreste is an example of the so called “genuine pasticcio”. The libretto, by Berlocci, was originally written for Rome in 1723. Handel radically shortened the piece, reducing 1119 lines down to 412. Londoners seemed to have fallen out of love with secco recitative and in his late operas Handel was generally ruthless in his cutting, sometimes to the point of absurdity in the plot.

Oreste was written for the Covent Garden season of 1734/35, which means that Handel had a small chorus and a ballet company at his disposal. Like the other operas in the season, Oreste takes advantage of these, with ballets concluding each act. The final two scenes of the opera consist of a flexible structure of recitative, chorus, aria, recitative, ballet, final coro.

It is a remarkably short opera, with three acts lasting a mere 160 minutes, which is quite brief by Handelian opera seria terms. It was written for quite a strong cast with the mezzo-soprano castrato Carestini (creator of Ariodante) playing Oreste, Cecilia Young was Ifigenia, Anna Strada del Po (creator of Alcina) was Ermino and John Beard was Pilade. In fact, Carestini had sung the role of Pilade in the original 1723 setting of the libretto (by Benedetto Micheli).

Handel took the overture, sinfonias, arias, duets and final coro from the earlier work, adding new recitatives and some new ballet music. The opening scene with Oreste plagued by the furies is imaginatively re-cycled from Agrippina’s Pensieri, with other items coming from, amongst other works:Tamerlano,Floridante and Sosarme.