While composing for the Earl of Carnarvon at Cannons, Handel was the musical contributor to a distinguished literary circle including the poets John Gay, Alexander Pope (1688–1744) and John Hughes (1677–1720). It is believed that all three authors contributed to the libretto of Acis and Galatea, which was given a private staged performance that probably required only a ...
Alcina (composed in 1735) is the most celebrated of Handel’s ‘magic’ operas. Its dynamic situations are compelling and poignant: Handel’s portrayal of an enchanted hero, his brave true love and their evil enemy inspired him to create a particularly fine score that examines intense emotional experiences such as loss, guilt, lust, nostalgia and the restoration of memory. ...
Ariodante also derives from Ariosto, but it is a serious opera. Thanks to a fine text, adapted from an old Italian libretto by Antonio Salvi, Handel was able to explore potent tragic situations, such as the King of Scotland being forced to contemplate executing his much-loved daughter Ginvera. The opera is best known for ‘Scherza infida’, an ...
‘Julius Cesar in Egypt’ Handel’s operas usually revolve around the voices and particular gifts of the singers that were available to him. Giulio Cesare in Egitto was created in 1724 as a vehicle for Senesino and Cuzzoni, although the characteristic trademark of Handel’s best operas is that the emotions and experience of the characters are not sacrificed to the virtuosity ...
The mid-1730s operas Orlando, Ariodante and Alcina represent the artistic peak of Handel’s operatic career. Their stories all originate in the epic poem Orlando Furioso by the playwright and poet Ariosto, who was born and bred at the Ferrara court in the late fifteenth century. Orlando portrays the destructive insanity of its title-hero, who ignores his destiny by ...
A small number of Handel’s dramatic works are known as the ‘magic operas’, including Rinaldo, Teseo (1712), Amadigi (1715), Orlando (1733) and Alcina. These operas feature protagonists who use sorcery to manipulate love, usually for evil ends. Most common among these operas is the prima-donna sorceress figure, who attempts to compel a castrato hero away from his true ...
Composed in 1725, Rodelinda is remarkable for its quality. Handel composed many exceptional accompanied recitatives for Senesino throughout their collaborations, and in this opera the dethroned King Bertarido, believed dead by his steadfast wife, laments his misfortune in an accompanied recitative and aria, ‘Pompe vane di morte! … Dove sei amato bene’, which shows Handel ...
Semele was first performed at Covent Garden on 10 February 1744 in the manner of an oratorio, without action or scenery. Nevertheless, Handel’s occasional collaborator Charles Jennens regarded it as ‘a bawdy opera’. Congreve’s libretto, based on a story from Ovid, had originally been set as an opera by John Eccles in 1707, but it was ...
Although popular now, Serse was one of Handel’s worst failures during his own time. It was only performed five times in its first run and Handel never revived it. Unusually among his operas, its libretto by Silvio Stampiglia (1664–1725) is warmly light-hearted and does not seriously concern itself with tragic events or heroic actions. The most famous aria, ...
1685–1759 English composer George Frideric Handel is one of the best known of all Baroque composers. His gift for melody, his instinctive sense of drama and vivid scene-painting, and the extraordinary range of human emotions explored in his vocal compositions make his music instantly accessible. Works such as Messiah (1741), Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks ...
1685–1759, German Handel composed 42 operas between 1704 and 1740, but most of these were neglected and seldom performed after his lifetime. In the twentieth century, Handel’s music dramas and in particular his operas underwent a renaissance that has established him as the definitive theatre composer of the late Baroque period. Handel was a maverick composer who pursued ...
Jazz and R&B star George Benson (b. 1943) seemed destined for a respected but low-key career in cool jazz until he adopted a funky hybrid of jazz and soul for the 1976 album Breezin’. Driven by accessible instrumentals and a smash reworking of Leon Russell’s ‘This Masquerade’, the album made Benson the biggest star to cross over from jazz to pop ...
With his wide range of standard and unorthodox techniques, George Lynch (b. 1954) became a guitarist’s guitarist as he cruised through the various incarnations of his bands Dokken and Lynch Mob. Born in Spokane, Washington, and raised in California, Lynch became lead guitarist of Dokken in 1980 after auditioning for Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and losing out ...
Pigeonholed as the ‘quiet one’, misunderstood as an adopter of Eastern religion and music, and overshadowed (sometimes maligned) by his prolific, trail-blazing bandmates Lennon and McCartney, George Harrison (1943–2001) might have become a footnote in musical history. But as a member of The Beatles, Harrison made the words ‘lead guitar’ a household term and steadily developed as ...
(Zhôrzh Be-za’) 1838–75 French composer When Bizet died at the age of 37, he was considered a failure by the French musical establishment. He had had several operas produced in Paris, but none of them had been wholly successful; now his latest work, Carmen, had caused a scandal. Bizet’s reputation was at its lowest ebb, but already ...
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