George Frideric Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...
's operas comprise 42 musical dramas that were written between 1705 and 1741 in various genres. Though his large scale English language works written for the theatre are technically
oratorios and not operas, several of them, such as ''
Semele'' (1743), have become an important part of the opera repertoire. Other English language oratorios which are sometimes fully staged as operas include ''
Saul'', ''
Samson'', ''
Hercules'', ''
Belshazzar'', ''
Theodora'' and ''
Jephtha''.
''
Parnasso in festa'', a
festa teatrale
The term ''festa teatrale'' ( Italian: , plural: ''feste teatrali'' ) refers to a genre of drama, and of opera in particular. The genre cannot be rigidly defined, and in any case ''feste teatrali'' tend to be split into two different sets: ''fes ...
composed by Handel to an Italian text and performed in London to celebrate the royal wedding of
Anne, Princess Royal and
Prince William of Orange in 1734, has many characteristics of an opera.
List of works
See also
*
Handel House Museum at 25 Brook Street and
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
worked in partnership to celebrate Handel's life and music in 2009, with BBC Radio 3 broadcasting the complete 42 operas, 8 January – 25 July 2009
*
Handel's lost Hamburg operas
*
List of compositions by George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) composed works including 42 operas; 25 oratorios; more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets; numerous arias; odes and serenatas; solo and trio sonatas; 18 concerti grossi; and 12 organ co ...
*
Handel Reference Database
References
*Hicks, Anthony (1992), 'Handel, George Frideric' in ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', ed. Stanley Sadie (London)
*Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages,
*Some of the information in this article is taken from the related
Dutch Wikipedia article.
External links
Handel House - Listing of operas with pages on each one
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handel, George Frideric
Lists of operas by composer