George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (1685 – 1759)
was a German-British Baroque composer well known for
his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and
organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle
and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before
settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of
his career and became a naturalised British subject in
1727. He was strongly influenced both by the
middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by
composers of the Italian Bar...(+)
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (1685 – 1759)
was a German-British Baroque composer well known for
his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and
organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle
and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before
settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of
his career and became a naturalised British subject in
1727. He was strongly influenced both by the
middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by
composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's
music forms one of the peaks of the "high baroque"
style, bringing Italian opera to its highest
development, creating the genres of English oratorio
and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into
English church music. He is consistently recognized as
one of the greatest composers of his age.
After spending some of his early career composing
operas and other pieces in Italy, he settled in London,
where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the
first time with his opera Rinaldo. A tremendous
success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian
opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo
arias for the star virtuoso singers. In 1719, Handel
was appointed music director of an organisation called
the Royal Academy of Music (unconnected with the
present day London conservatoire), a company under
royal charter to produce Italian operas in London.
Handel was not only to compose operas for the company
but hire the star singers, supervise the orchestra and
musicians, and adapt operas from Italy for London
performance.
Deidamia (HWV 42) is an opera in three acts composed by
George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Paolo
Antonio Rolli. It premiered on 10 January 1741 at
Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London. A ballad opera on
the same story by John Gay had been performed in London
in 1733, under the title Achilles. Handel's opera, a
co-production with the Earl of Holderness, was first
performed on 10 January 1741 at London's Lincoln's Inn
Fields Theatre, but received only two more performances
at a time when the public was becoming tired of Italian
opera. The work was Handel's last Italian opera, and he
subsequently turned his attention to composing
oratorios. The opera was revived in the 1950s and it
receives staged performances today, e.g. the 2012
staging by David Alden for Netherlands Opera.
The opera is based upon the Greek mythological
character Deidamia, the daughter of King Lycomedes of
Skyros, who bore a child by Achilles, as told in the
stories of Achilles on Skyros. The oracle predicted
that Achilles would die if he fought in the Trojan War.
In an attempt to forestall this fate, his father Peleus
has disguised him as a girl and sent him to live in the
palace of his friend Lycomedes, on the island of
Skyros, where he is brought up amongst Lycomedes'
daughters and becomes the lover of the eldest,
Deidamia. As the Greeks prepare for their war against
Troy, the priest Calchas reveals that the city cannot
be taken without Achilles' help. Ambassadors are sent
to Skyros to retrieve him.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deidamia_(opera)).
Although originally scored for Violini, Viola, Bass &
Bassi, I created this Interpretation of the Aria "Nelle
nubi intorno al Fato a' mortali" from "Deidamia" (HWV
42 Act 1 No. 3) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).
