Chapter I
Birth and parentage—studies under Zachow at Halle—Hamburg—friendship and
duel with Mattheson—Almira—departure for Italy.
Chapter II
Arrival in Italy—Rodrigo—Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the
Scarlattis—Naples: Venice: Agrippina—appointment at Hanover—London:
Rinaldo.
Chapter III
Second visit to London—Italian opera—George I and the Water
Music—visit to Germany—Canons and the Duke of Chandos—establishment of
the Royal Academy of Music.
Chapter IV
Buononcini—Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino—death of George I—The
Beggar's Opera—collapse of the Academy.
Chapter V
Handel naturalized—partnership with Heidegger—Esther—the Opera of
the Nobility—visit to Oxford—opera season at Covent Garden—Charles
Jennens—collapse of both opera-houses.
Chapter VI
Bankruptcy and paralysis—visit to Aix-la-Chapelle—the last
operas—Vauxhall Gardens—Handel's "borrowings"—visit to
Ireland—Messiah and other oratorios.
Chapter VII
Judas Maccabaeus—Gluck—Thomas Morell—incipient blindness—Telemann and
his garden—last oratorios—death—character and personality.
Bibliography and List of Works
CHRONOLOGY
1685.... Birth at Halle.
1702.... Entered University; organist of the Cathedral.
1703.... Went to Hamburg.
1705.... First opera: Almira (Hamburg).
1707.... Arrival in Italy.
1710.... Appointment at Hanover; first visit to London.
1711.... First London opera: Rinaldo.
1712.... Second visit to London.
1717.... Appointment to the Duke of Chandos.
1720.... Opening of Royal Academy of Music (Opera).
1726.... Naturalized as a British subject.
1728.... The Beggar's Opera. Collapse of the Academy.
1732.... First public oratorio: Esther.
1733.... Festival at Oxford.
1737.... Collapse of Opera; Handel bankrupt and paralysed.
1741.... Last opera: Deidamia.
1742.... Messiah at Dublin.
1751.... First signs of blindness. Last oratorio Jeptha.
1759.... Death in London.
CHAPTER I
Birth and parentage—studies under Zachow at Halle—Hamburg—friendship and duel with Mattheson—Almira—departure for Italy.
The name of Handel suggests to most people the sound of music unsurpassed in massiveness and dignity, and the familiar portraits of the composer present us with a man whose external appearance was no less massive and dignified than his music. Countless anecdotes point him out to us as a well-known figure in the life of London during the reigns of Queen Anne and the first two Georges. He lies buried in Westminster Abbey. One would expect every detail of his life to be known and recorded, his every private thought to be revealed with the pellucid clarity of his immortal strains. It is not so; to assemble the bare facts of Handel's life is a problem which has baffled the most laborious of his biographers, and his inward personality is more mysterious than that of any other great musician of the last two centuries.