Hanmer and her husband, Mr. Percival, Sir John Stanley and my brother, Mrs. Lord Shaftesbury begged of Mr. Handel who was here also was admitted; I never was so well entertained at an opera! I gave them tea and coffee, and about half an hour after nine had a salver brought in of chocolate, mulled white wine and biscuits. Everybody was easy and seemed pleased. Rich was renowned for his spectacular productions. In he introduced organ concertos between the acts.
For the first time Handel allowed Gioacchino Conti, who had no time to learn his part, to substitute arias. Financially, Ariodante was a failure, although he introduced ballet suites at the end of each act. In April , at age 52, Handel apparently suffered a stroke which disabled the use of four fingers on his right hand, preventing him from performing.
In summer the disorder seemed at times to affect his understanding. Nobody expected that Handel would ever be able to perform again. But whether the affliction was rheumatism, a stroke or a nervous breakdown, he recovered remarkably quickly.
To aid his recovery, Handel had travelled to Aachen, a spa in Germany. During six weeks he took long hot baths, and ended up playing the organ for a surprised audience. Deidamia , his last opera, was performed three times in Handel gave up the opera business, while he enjoyed more success with his English oratorios. The circumstances of Esther and its first performance, possibly in , are obscure. Another 12 years had passed when an act of piracy caused him to take up Esther once again.
Three earlier performances aroused such interest that they naturally prompted the idea of introducing it to a larger public.
In these three oratorios Handel laid the foundation for the traditional use of the chorus which marks his later oratorios. Handel became sure of himself, broader in his presentation, and more diverse in his composition.
It is evident how much he learned from Arcangelo Corelli about writing for instruments, and from Alessandro Scarlatti about writing for the solo voice; but there is no single composer who taught him how to write for chorus.
Handel tended more and more to replace Italian soloists by English ones. Handel's compositions include 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than cantatas, trios and duets, numerous arias, chamber music, a large number of ecumenical pieces, odes and serenatas, and 16 organ concerti. His most famous work, the oratorio Messiah with its "Hallelujah" chorus, is among the most popular works in choral music and has become the centrepiece of the Christmas season.
Among the works with opus numbers published and popularised in his lifetime are the Organ Concertos Op. Also notable are his sixteen keyboard suites, especially The Harmonious Blacksmith. Close Calendar. In August , on a journey back from Germany to London, Handel was seriously injured in a carriage accident between The Hague and Haarlem in the Netherlands. In one eye started to fail. The cause was a cataract which was operated on by the great charlatan Chevalier Taylor. This did not improve his eyesight, but possibly made it worse.
He died eight years later in at home in Brook Street, at age The last performance he attended was of Messiah. Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey. More than three thousand mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state honours. Handel never married, and kept his personal life private. His initial will bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his niece Johanna, however four codicils distributed much of his estate to other relations, servants, friends and charities.
Handel owned an art collection that was auctioned posthumously in The auction catalogue listed approximately seventy paintings and ten prints other paintings were bequeathed. Among the works with opus numbers published and popularised in his lifetime are the Organ Concertos Op.
Also notable are his sixteen keyboard suites, especially The Harmonious Blacksmith. Also incomplete was the collection produced between and by the English Handel Society found by Sir George Macfarren. For modern performance, the realisation of the basso continuo reflects 19th century practice.
Vocal scores drawn from the edition were published by Novello in London, but some scores, such as the vocal score to Samson are incomplete.
It did not start as a critical edition, but after heavy criticism of the first volumes, which were performing editions without a critical apparatus for example, the opera Serse was published with the title character recast as a tenor reflecting pre-war German practice , it repositioned itself as a critical edition.
Influenced in part by cold-war realities, editorial work was inconsistent: misprints are found in abundance and editors failed to consult important sources. In a committee was formed to establish better standards for the edition.
The unification of Germany in removed communication problems, and the volumes issued have since shown a significant improvement in standards. Throughout the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Anglophonecountries, his reputation rested primarily on his English oratorios, which were customarily performed by enormous choruses of amateur singers on solemn occasions. The centenary of his death, in , was celebrated by a performance of Messiah at The Crystal Palace, involving 2, singers and instrumentalists, who played for an audience of about 10, people.
Since the early music revival many of the forty-two operas he wrote have been performed in opera houses and concert halls. Giulio Cesare , Tamerlano and Rodelinda each on a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, stand out and are considered as masterpieces, each in a different style. Of the former, Ode for St. For his secular oratorios, Handel turned to classical mythology for subjects, producing such works as Acis and Galatea , Hercules and Semele These works have a close kinship with the sacred oratorios, particularly in the vocal writing for the English-language texts.
As such, they are sometimes performed onstage by small chamber ensembles. Handel has generally been accorded high esteem by fellow composers, both in his own time and since. Bach attempted, unsuccessfully, to meet with Handel while he was visiting Halle. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt.
I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb. In Beethoven composed The Consecration of the House overture, which also bears the influence of Handel. Follow uDiscover Classical on Facebook and Twitter. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Search uDiscover Music. Format: UK English. Click to comment. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.
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