MUS 351 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: George Frideric Handel, Recitative, Senesino
Document Summary
Italian opera in the late baroque; george frideric handel: life & works. In 1718-1719 about 60 wealthy gentlemen, with the support of the king, established a joint stock company for producing italian operas. They called it the royal academy of music. The operas were staged at the king"s theatre in the haymarket. Handel was engaged as the music director. He traveled to germany to recruit singers, mostly italians performing in dresden ad other courts. Perhaps his biggest catch was the arrogant but widely celebrated castrato senesino. Handel composed some of his best operas, including radamisto (1720) , ottone (1723), Giulio cesare (julius caesar, 1724), rodelinda (1725), and admeto (1727) The subjects of handel"s operas were the usual ones of the time: episodes from the lives of. Roman heroes freely adapted to include the maximum number of intense dramatic situations, or tales of magic and marvelous adventure revolving around the crusades.
