Handel in London by Jane Glover

Author:Jane Glover
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2018-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

But this was merely the tip of an iceberg that had been forming steadily over several months. At the end of the previous season, another satirical pamphlet, See and Seem Blind, purporting to be a letter from ‘Lord B-----’ (Burlington) to ‘A----- H---- Esq’ (Aaron Hill), had indicated total impatience with all Handel’s activities:

I left the Italian Opera, the House was so thin, and cross’d over the way to the English one, which was so full I was forc’d to croud upon the Stage . . . This alarme’d H----l, and out he brings an Oratorio, or Religious Farce . . . so away goes I to the Oratorio, where I saw indeed the finest Assembly of People I ever beheld in my Life, but, to my great Surprize, found this Sacred Drama a mere Consort [concert], no Scenary, Dress or Action, so necessary to a Drama; but H----l, was plac’d in Pulpit, (I suppose they call that their Oratory), by him sate Senesino, Strada, Bertolli, and Turner Robinson, in their own Habits; before him stood sundry sweet Singers of this poor Israel, and Strada gave us a Hallelujah of Half an Hour long; Senesino and Bertolli made rare work with the English Tongue you would have sworn it had been Welch.32

By the beginning of 1733, the animosity towards Handel had built to such an extent that there was a plan to set up a rival opera company. The Earl of Delawarr recorded, in January, ‘There is a Spirit got up against the Dominion of Mr. Handel, a subscription carry’d on, and Directors chosen, who have contracted with Senesino, and have sent for Cuzzoni, and Farinelli . . . Porpora is also sent for.’33 The energy of this report is as shocking as is the stellar list of names it proposes to present in the new company. (Handel had completely failed to lure Farinelli to London.) Clearly Senesino, thoroughly disgruntled after all his years with Handel, was at the heart of the machinations, and he would have been keen to involve his old colleague, Cuzzoni, in any new venture. (It was her portrait that hung on the walls of his Siena palazzo; Faustina was neither on his wall, nor on his list.) The Earl’s report continued, ‘The General Court gave power to contract with any Singer Except Strada’. So Strada was considered to be too close to Handel, for she was his true and loyal protégée. The list of directors already chosen for this new company is as impressive as that of its prospective artistic personnel. Most of them were noblemen, and some were disgruntled former directors of the Academy. Politically they veered towards the opposition, indicating a general sense of rebellion against the status quo, be it governmental or operatic. And the most interesting name of them all was that of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who, despite his passionate enthusiasm for Handel’s music, was more than ready to espouse any cause that obstructed those of his parents. Thus the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.