All goes well, until their demands start breaking the bank. Handel travels Europe to recruit singers, and manages to hire two top-ranked castrati, as well as two famous Italian sopranos. Opera and drama, 1719-1728: The Royal Academy of Music is established for the promotion of opera in London.Social climber, 1717: Handel entered the service of the Duke of Chandos, composing an early version of Esther, the first oratorio ever written in English.Legend states that the music delighted the King so much that he asked for it to be played three times. Water Music, 1717: Handel composes one of his most famous orchestral compositions, the Water Music, for a royal barge trip down the Thames.He officially anglicizes his name (Georg Friedrich to George Frideric), and later becomes a naturalized British citizen. When George of Hanover becomes King George I of England in 1714, Handel receives his back salary, and resumes his role as the King’s favored composer, moving to England for good. One step back, 1713: Handel is fired from his post in Hanover, but there were no hard feelings.This feat lays the foundation for his future career. New horizons, 1711: Handel spends much time in London, where he makes a big splash, composing the first Italian opera specifically written for London, Rinaldo.Bach that same year: 175 thaler annually! His salary is huge: 1,000 thaler annually, compared with that of J.S. Chapel master, 1710: Handel becomes Kapellmeister for George, Elector of Hanover.The Venetian production of Agrippina secures Handel an international reputation. Under their patronage, Handel composes hundreds of cantatas. The grand tour, 1706-1709: On an extensive tour of Italy he forms close associations with powerful men in Italian culture: the Medicis, and the famous Cardinals Ottoboni, Pamphili, Colonna, and Ruspoli.The next year, the director of the Hamburg Opera skips town, and the interim manager gives Handel his first opera commission, Almira.
First gig, 1703-4: Handel moves to Hamburg to play violin in the opera orchestra.Later, Handel studies with Giovanni Bononcini, one of the most successful opera composers of his generation. Training: The Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, hears the nine-year old Handel play organ and convinces the composer’s father to allow the boy to continue in music.
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