At the request of his father, a prominent physician, Handel was to become either a doctor or a lawyer.
However, he had strong musical talent and gained an excellent teacher,
organist and composer F. W. Zachow. Handel successfully performed on a harpsichord in Berlin, but continued his studies of law. In 1702, he
received the post of organist in Hall, where he performed and taught
vocal music. He achieved an extraordinary success and that convinced him
he was destined for a musical career. He quit his legal studies and
left for Hamburg, the German city of opera.
In Hamburg, Handel became the second violinist in the opera
orchestra. In 1704, he wrote the Passion of St. John, which was
criticized by music critic Matheson. There was even a cord fight between
them, in which Handel was almost killed. Matheson’s cord was stopped by
a button on his coat. However, Handel’s first operas “Almira” and
“Nero” dominated the Hamburg Opera for the entire winter season.
Unfortunately, opera in Hamburg was coming to an unfortunate end, and
Handel traveled to Italy.
He visited Florence and traveled to Rome and attempted luck in the
centre of opera, Venice. Then he lived in Naples for a year. He
succeeded in Venice after his second visit. At the beginning of the
carnival season 1709 – 1710, he introduced his opera “Agrippina” and
success has surpassed all expectations. The opera has been voted the
most melodic of Italian operas and its popularity soon spread throughout
Europ. However, the success in Venice just convinced Handel that he
received all he could from Italy and returned to Hanover, where he was
offered the post of Kapellmeister. But even there he did not stay long
and headed to England.
At the time when Handel arrived in London, the English music was in
crisis, and London didn’t have a composer. Handel received a commission
from the London opera for an opera “Rinaldo”, which was created in just
14 days. The premiere had an overwhelming response. Aria “Lascia chi’o
pianga” (“Let me weep”) is one of the most famous opera arias. With
obvious distaste, he left for Hanover the same year, but in 1712 was
back in London with no intention of returning.
Immediately after his arrival in England, he had continuous success
and became the official composer of the English Court. Between 1717 and
1720 he was in the service of the Duke of Chandos. There, with no care
for money, his personality matured and Handel had virtually created a whole new style of music and theater. Later he tried to create a tradition of Italian opera in England. It was a period of struggle and
intrigue, but concluded with Handel’s immortal works.
Operas: “Radamisto”, “Ottone”, “Giulio Cesare”, “Tamerlane” and many
others. After years of success, new competitors began to appear and
English resentment towards foreigners grew. Handel gradually lost the
support of the king. By himself, he continued to fight for the Italian
opera, and wrote several operas a year, but his opera theater went bankrupt and he fell into debt.
In 1737, Handel suffered a stroke, caused by his stressful work.
However, he was miraculously cured at the spa in Aachen. Reborn, he
composed two masterpiece oratorios “Saul” and “Israel in Egypt”. The
Irish lord governor invited the composer to Dublin, where he created his
extraordinarily successful oratorio “Messiah”.
Handel’s creative focus has shifted from operas to oratorios has
gained him popularity once again. After the patriotic oratorios
“Occasional Oratorio” and “Judah Maccabee”, England finally acknowledged
G. F. Handel as their national composer. He no longer had any enemies
and material worries, and was able to fully devote himself to music. In
addition to numerous operas, he created for example “Firework Musik”
(Music for the Royal Fireworks).
He made the last trip to his hometown of Halle and finished oratorio
“Jephta”. After its completion, he went blind and in 1759 died.
