Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of
the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles
Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses.
Handel had by this time definitely decided to make England his home; on
February 13, 1726, he had been naturalised as an English subject. He had
every reason to regard England as the best place in which to live. He
enjoyed the protection of the German court; George II and Queen Caroline
gave him indeed a good deal more encouragement than George I. The
appointments of composer to the Chapel Royal and composer to the court were
purely honorary, but they strengthened his position. As to the opera-house,
he must by now have felt that he was its unquestioned autocrat, and he
could not help being aware that he was without a rival in Europe as far as
the stage was concerned, for old Scarlatti had gone to his grave, and the
younger generation had produced no composer of such outstanding eminence.
And in England music was generously rewarded from a material point of view;
high fees were paid, not only to singers, but to teachers as well, and
England was also one of the few countries where music-printing was a
flourishing business. A good proportion of Handel's savings must have come
from the sale of his published compositions; among Handel's contemporaries
no other composer in Europe had so many of his works printed during his
lifetime. English society seemed always ready to subscribe for a new
musical work, and neither in Paris nor in Amsterdam was music so admirably
engraved as in London.
Encouraged by the Princess Royal, Handel went into partnership with
Heidegger, who had also made his own profits out of the opera, as well as
out of his notorious masquerades; they leased the King's Theatre for a
period of five years. The first thing to do was to secure new singers, and
for this purpose Handel went to Italy, probably in the autumn of 1728.
Heidegger had already tried to bring back Senesino and the two "costly
canary-birds," as Colley Cibber called them, but they had had enough of
London, and probably of Handel too. Little is known of the details of this
Italian journey; it has been said that Handel travelled with Steffani,
but this is impossible, as Steffani died at Frankfurt early in the year.
Mainwaring tells us that, at Rome, Cardinal Colonna invited him to his
palace, but that Handel, hearing that the Pretender was staying there,
prudently declined the invitation. In engaging singers he seems to have
been perhaps more prudent than was desirable, for his new company did not
contain any very distinguished names. In place of Senesino he obtained the
_castrato_ Bernacchi; his new first woman was Signora Strada del Po', who
was a fine singer, but so unattractive in appearance that London nicknamed
her "The Pig." It is interesting to note that he also engaged a tenor,
Annibale Fabri, although in those; days tenors were considered only fit for
old men's parts of minor importance, and at Naples were generally given the
parts of comic old women. Fabri's wife and another woman were announced
as good actresses of male parts. "Fabri has a tenor voice," wrote Mrs.
Pendarves, "sweet, clear and firm, but not strong enough, I doubt, for the
stage. He sings like a gentleman, without making faces, and his manner is
particularly agreeable." Perhaps Handel's friendship with Mrs. Pendarves
had given him a sure insight into the taste of English gentlewomen.
In the summer of 1729 Handel paid a visit to his mother at Halle; she was
then blind and half paralysed. Bach sent his son Friedemann over from
Leipzig to beg Handel to come and see him, as he was himself too ill to
make the journey, but Handel not unnaturally declined. Towards the end of
June he passed through Hanover, and also went to Hamburg, where he engaged
a German bass Riemschneider.
The opera season began on December 2, with Handel's _Lothario_, but it
had only a moderate success. After a few revivals of _Giulio Cesare_, he
brought out a second new opera, _Partenope_, on February 24. Despite its
many beauties, it was even less successful than _Lothario_. Handel's
audience did not go to the theatre to listen to his music; they went to
hear the singers, and Bernacchi, who was no longer a young man, was a poor
substitute for Senesino. Strada was the only member of the company who
interested the audience. For the next season something better had to be
found, and through Francis Colman, the English Envoy at Florence, Senesino
was persuaded to accept 1,400 guineas instead of the 2,000 that he had
received before. He opened the season of 1730 on November 3, with his
former rôle of Scipio. For the moment Handel remained in the background;
the next opera was a _pasticcio_, that is, an opera made up of favourite
songs from various operas stuck into any convenient libretto. On February 2
there came out the new opera of Handel, _Poro_, which turned the tide once
more in the composer's favour. Later on, _Rinaldo_ and _Rodelinda_ were
revived, but the season came to an early end on May 29. For the following
winter some changes were made in the cast. Senesino and Strada were
of course indispensable, and the most important new acquisition was
Montagnana, the bass, for whom Handel was to write some of his most
celebrated songs.
After revivals of _Tamerlano_ and _Admeto_, Handel brought out _Ezio_ on
January 15, 1732; it had only five performances. _Sosarme_ (February 19)
had ten; it is remembered now by the exquisite song, "Rendi 'l sereno al
ciglio," which was sung by Strada. The remainder of the season presented
nothing of any special interest until on the last night Handel offered his
subscribers a new type of entertainment in the shape of _Acis and Galatea_.
On Handel's birthday, February 23, Bernard Gates, the master of the
children of the Chapel Royal, arranged a private performance of _Esther_,
which had been neglected since its first performance at Canons some twelve
years before. Among the boys who sang and acted in the "masque" were Beard,
who afterwards became Handel's favourite tenor, and Randall, eventually
Professor of Music in Cambridge, who took the part of Esther. The
performance was repeated twice before a paying public at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern, where concerts were often held, and on April 20 a rival
organisation advertised a further performance of Esther at the concert-room
in Villiers Street. On this occasion it was described as "an oratorio or
sacred drama," and was evidently sung without action. Princess Anne wished
to see it on the stage of the opera-house but the Bishop of London forbade
a dramatic performance. As the bishop's ban was ultimately the cause of
Handel's turning his attention to oratorio in preference to opera, it has
sometimes been suggested that Handel might have created a new type of
national English opera on biblical subjects if only his lordship had not
interfered. In justice to the bishop it has to be pointed out that his
objection seems to have been raised, not against the dramatic presentation
of Bible stories (for he did not discountenance Gates' performances by the
choristers at the Crown and Anchor), but against their presentation in
a regular theatre by professional opera singers. Such prejudice may be
difficult to understand at the present day, but even well into the middle
of the nineteenth century persons of severe morality regarded the theatre
and all who belonged thereto with stern disapproval, and the notorious
scandals associated with Cuzzoni and Faustina, to say nothing of Heidegger,
were not likely to have washed out the memory of Jeremy Collier's
denunciations.
"The sacred story of _Esther_, an oratorio in English," was accordingly
announced for May 2, with the information that "there will be no acting
on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the
audience; the Musick [i.e. the orchestra] to be disposed after the manner
of the coronation service." Within a fortnight, Thomas Arne, father of the
composer, advertised a performance of _Acis and Galatea_ at the Little
Theatre in the Haymarket "with all the choruses, scenes, machines, and
other decorations, being the first time it was performed in a theatrical
way." The laws of the time gave no protection to musical and dramatic
copyright. Handel could only reply by giving a performance of the work
himself; his one advantage was that as composer he could remodel the score
and make several new additions to it. But he did not have the work acted;
it was sung in costume with a background of appropriate scenery. Even in
this form it obtained four performances; Senesino and Strada took part in
it, singing in English.
Such a setting may appear strange to modern readers, but, even if it was
a new idea for England at the time, it was a fairly well established
tradition on the Continent, and Handel may very likely have seen a similar
entertainment in Italy. The subscribers to the opera would see little in
it that was incongruous. They were accustomed to see singers in all operas
wearing dresses that differed very little from their own, and scenery which
recalled their own Italianate gardens and palaces; Handelian opera, in any
case, left little scope for what most people now call acting. At the same
time we may be pretty sure that concert singers, especially Italians,
allowed themselves far more liberty of spontaneous expressive movement than
Victorian oratorio singers holding their music-books in front of them by
traditional convention.
Four more performances of _Acis and Galatea_ were given at the opera-house
in December 1732; Handel evidently saw that it would be a sure attraction.
_Alessandro_ and _Tolomeo_ were revived, and on January 23 he produced a
new opera, _Orlando_, which had ten performances, with six more later in
the season. _Orlando_ is one of Handel's most original operas; he seems
always to have derived a peculiar inspiration from the poems of Tasso and
Ariosto, as in the case of _Rinaldo_. _Orlando_ is a thoroughly romantic
opera--Chrysander even compares it with those of Weber--full of episodes of
madness and magic; it is so far removed from the ordinary conventions of
its time that we can well imagine it to have startled both its audiences
and its singers.
The affairs of the opera-house were going badly, and it is probable that
there were considerable dissension within its walls. It is certain that
relations between Handel and Senesino were becoming more and more strained;
_Orlando_ was the last opera of Handel's in which he sang. It seems fairly
certain also that Heidegger was none too loyal as a partner. Heidegger was
in a strong position, for he was the actual owner of the stock of scenery
and other appurtenances taken over from the original Academy. He seems to
have lent the theatre to Buononcini for some performances of _Griselda_,
and, when the lease came to an end, it was Heidegger who left Handel in the
lurch and allowed a rival organisation to secure it.
There was, too, a further reason for the general hostility against Handel.
Encouraged by the success of _Acis and Galatea_, he had composed a new
oratorio, _Deborah_, which was performed at the opera-house on March 17,
by the King's command. For this work prices were doubled; tickets were a
guinea each, and admission to the gallery half a guinea, instead of five
shillings. At the second performance the normal prices were charged. The
raising of prices for an extraordinary performance might well seem nothing
unreasonable; but the event came exactly at the moment of the popular
outcry against Walpole's Excise Bill, and the satirists of the day seized
the opportunity of comparing Handel with Walpole.
Handel was now nearly fifty years of age. In the days of _Rinaldo_ he had
been a young man of twenty-five, making friends with those of his own age
or younger, a new attraction with all the fascination of genius and youth.
In the course of a generation he had become an established institution. He
had made a success; he had amassed a fortune; he had secured to himself the
unshaken confidence of the court; but he had inevitably made enemies. The
native musicians were very naturally jealous of the foreigner, and the
numerous foreign musicians in London jealous of one who made more money out
of the extravagant English than they did themselves. The Italian singers
found him tyrannical, and society very probably resented his rough manners.
Society had engaged him to provide music for their entertainment, and he
took up the unheard-of attitude of expecting society to pay its guineas
for whatever music he chose to write. England, one might almost say, had
spoiled him, for it was only in England that "The Great Bear," as he was
sometimes called, could go his own way--a musician behaving with the
complete disregard of public opinion which was considered the exclusive
privilege of the English nobility. In any other country he would have
been forced either to pander to the taste of a court or to relapse into
obscurity. It was not until after the French Revolution that a Beethoven
could display the independence of Handel in the aristocratic environment of
Vienna.
The English nobility, having set Handel this example, claimed their own
rights, and organised a rival opera-house at Lincoln's Inn Fields. They had
no difficulty in seducing, first Senesino, then Montagnana, and finally
Heidegger. Only Strada remained faithful to Handel. Buononcini having lost
their favour, they engaged as composer the Neapolitan Nicolo Porpora,
famous then as a great trainer of singers, and still more famous in later
years as the teacher of Haydn. If Handel had the King and Queen on his
side, the nobility could count on the support of Frederick Prince of Wales,
who was immensely popular throughout the country and was on the worst
possible terms with his royal parents. The Opera of the Nobility, as the
new syndicate was called, was making its plans in good time, directly after
the end of Handel's season.
In July 1733, Handel was invited to Oxford for a series of performances
of his works, and it was proposed to confer on him the honorary degree of
Doctor of Music. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Holmes, was a loyal Hanoverian,
and hoped by honouring Handel to do something to counteract the Jacobite
reputation of the University. _Esther_ and _Deborah_ were performed, as
well as the Utrecht _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate_, and the Coronation Anthems;
Handel further provided a new oratorio, _Athaliah_. The degree he refused
to accept, for what reason has never been explained. Various suggestions
have been offered. The Abbé Prevost, who was in England at the time, says
that he refused the degree out of modesty; later biographers have differed
in their views as to whether modesty was one of Handel's characteristics.
Others have supposed that he refused to pay the fee of £100 that was
demanded, but it is inconceivable that a fee should have been demanded
for an honorary degree, although it would naturally have been paid by
candidates who took the degree in the normal way. The concerts were
attended by large audiences, many music lovers coming over from Eton and
Cambridge, although there was considerable resentment at the price of
admission--five shillings, a small amount compared with Handel's London
charges. This "Handel Festival" at Oxford is significant, for it shows
that in the space of no more than a year oratorio had begun to make a wide
appeal, even outside London, although it was a form of composition that was
new to English audiences. _Esther_, considered as a masque to be acted,
might be said to continue the English traditions of the previous century,
but there was no precedent in England for anything like _Esther_ in concert
form. The only English works which offered anything remotely like oratorio
were the odes of Purcell and Blow for the musicians' festivals on St.
Cecilia's Day, apart from the greater services and anthems of Purcell,
which were composed, not for entertainment, but for liturgical use.
After the Oxford concerts, Handel and Schmidt went to Italy to look for
singers. They heard Farinelli, the most famous _castrato_ of the century,
but did not engage him; perhaps his demands were too high. The _castrato_
whom they did engage was Carestini, who, though less celebrated, was at any
rate a singularly artistic singer. Durastanti came back, and, in place of
Montagnana, Handel contented himself with Waltz, a German, who is often
described as having been Handel's cook. Burney, at any rate, recorded that
he was said to have filled this office, but Burney remembered him chiefly
as a popular comic singer. He had sung Polyphemus in Arne's pirated
performance of _Acis and Galatea_, and owing to the defection of
Montagnana, took his place in _Athaliah_ at Oxford. He had "a coarse figure
and a still coarser voice" (Burney).
Handel opened his season on October 30, 1733. He had already finished the
composition of a new opera, _Ariadne_, but it was not brought out until
January 26, 1734. The reason, no doubt, was that an opera on the same
subject by Porpora was produced by the Opera of the Nobility on December
29. Handel would no doubt have heard that it was in rehearsal, and
have postponed his own production until he could see how Porpora's was
succeeding. The two operas obtained the same number of performances, but
Handel's theatre was seldom full, and many opera-goers were dissatisfied at
his giving them oratorios, such as _Deborah_ and _Acis_, on opera nights;
these, however, seem to have been commanded by the King, and that in itself
would make them all the more unpopular.
In March the Princess Royal was married to the Prince of Orange, and Handel
was commissioned to write a wedding anthem. He also provided a secular
entertainment in the shape of _Parnaso in festa_, described as a
_serenata_. It was not unlike a masque; Apollo and the Muses appeared in
costume on Mount Parnassus, but apparently there was no acting. The music
was adapted from _Athaliah_, which, so far, had only been heard at Oxford.
Oratorio was also attempted by Handel's rival; Mrs. Pendarves heard a work
of his at Lincoln's Inn Fields in March. "It is a fine solemn piece of
music," she wrote, "but I confess I think the subject too solemn for a
theatre. To have words of piety made use of only to introduce good music,
is reversing what it ought to be, and most of the people that hear the
oratorio make no reflection on the meaning of the words, though God is
addressed in the most solemn manner." Needless to say, it was "not equal
to Mr. Handel's oratorio of Esther or Deborah." Mrs. Pendarves was at this
time a near neighbour of Handel's in Lower Brook Street; one of her letters
describes a small musical party (her musical parties were always small) a
month later. Apparently there were not more than ten guests, including Lord
Shaftesbury, who begged another guest to bring him, and was admitted as
being "a profess'd friend of Mr. Handel"; the only professional musicians
present were Handel and Strada. "I never was so well entertained at an
opera! Mr. Handel was in the best humour in the world, and played lessons
and accompanied Strada and all the ladies that sung from seven o' the clock
till eleven." In such company Handel could evidently be more agreeable than
on the stage at rehearsals, and it is interesting to note that the amateurs
had no timidity about singing before Strada, and that Handel was willing to
accompany all of them alike.
In July 1734, Handel's lease of the King's Theatre came to an end, and he
found the theatre let at once by some means to his rivals, the Opera of the
Nobility. He therefore entered into an arrangement with Rich for the use of
his new theatre in Covent Garden, but his autumn season actually opened at
Lincoln's Inn Fields on October 5. The probable reason for this was that
the Princess Anne was spending the summer in England and wished to hear
some of Handel's operas. She was a remarkably gifted musician, and Handel
considered her to be the best of his pupils; she not only sang and played
the harpsichord well, but was thoroughly grounded in the theoretical side
of music and quite capable of composing a fugue, according to a Dutch
musician who became acquainted with her after her marriage. She came to
England on July 2 for a long stay, and at once persuaded Handel to give
three additional performances of _Il Pastor Fido_, which he had revived
that season. _Pastor Fido_ and _Ariadne_ were given again for her in
October; probably Covent Garden was not quite ready for performances.
Princess Anne left England on October 21, and her last words at parting
were to beg Lord Hervey to do all he could to help Handel.
The chief attraction to the public at Covent Garden was probably not Handel
but Mlle Sallé, a French dancer who had been engaged by Rich. The first
performance at the new theatre was a ballet, _Terpsichore_, in order that
she might inaugurate the season. _Terpsichore_, which includes songs and a
chorus, served as prologue to _Il Pastor Fido_. The next opera was _Oreste,
a pasticcio_ made up by Handel himself from his own works; on January 8,
1735, he produced his Ariodante, an opera over which he had spent the
unusually long time of ten weeks. The score was begun on August 12 and
finished on October 24. The story is taken from Ariosto, and, as with
Orlando, Handel found that it afforded opportunities for his peculiar vein
of romanticism. On April 16 he followed it up with Alcina, again on a
subject from Ariosto, and one of even more romantic character. Ariosto's
enchantress Alcina was the model for Tasso's better-known Armida, who
provided both Lulli and Gluck with one of their most dramatic heroines, and
Burney says, with some justice, that Handel's Alcina gave birth to all the
Armidas and Rinaldos of modern times. Both Ariodante and Alcina contained a
large amount of ballet music, and the dances in Alcina, intermingled
with choruses in the French manner, are among Handel's most attractive
compositions.
Mrs. Pendarves, after the rehearsal of Alcina, described Handel as himself
"a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments," but he could not
prevail against the enchantments of Farinelli, who had been engaged by the
rival opera company. There could be no competing against a combination that
included along with him Senesino, Cuzzoni, and Montagnana. The one powerful
counter-attraction that Handel could offer was oratorio on Wednesdays and
Fridays in Lent, when operas were not allowed to be given. Porpora's David,
which the rival management put on, had no chance against Esther, Deborah,
and Athaliah. Alcina carried the Opera on to the end of the season, the
well-known air "Verdi prati," which Carestini had at first refused to
sing, being encored at every performance. Handel's alleged angry retort to
Carestini in comical broken English has been often quoted from Burney; but
Schoelcher very sensibly observed that Handel was pretty certain to have
conversed with Carestini in Italian.
The newspapers informed the world in May that Handel was going to spend the
summer in Germany. His health had been seriously undermined, and it
may well have been possible that he had talked of taking a cure at
Aix-la-Chapelle; but on this occasion he went no farther than Tunbridge
Wells. It was probably in the earlier part of 1735 that he made the
acquaintance of Charles Jennens, a young man who was eventually to play a
great part in his life, for on July 28 he wrote to Jennens to say that he
was just starting for Tunbridge.
The letter is so short that it may be quoted here in full, for it gives us
a great deal of interesting information.
London,
_July 28, 1735_.
Sir,
I received your very agreeable letter with
the enclosed Oratorio. I am just going to Tunbridge;
yet what I could read of it in haste,
gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I shall
have more leisure time there to read it with all
the attention it deserves.
There is no certainty of any Scheme for
next Season, but it is probable that something
or other may be done, of which I shall take
the liberty to give you notice, being extremely
obliged to you for the generous concern you
show upon this account.
The Opera of Alcina is a writing out, and
shall be sent according to your direction. It is
always a great pleasure to me if I have an
opportunity to show the sincere respect with
which I have the honour to be,
Sir,
&c., &c.,
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL.
Jennens was a conspicuous figure in the London society of his day. At the
time of this correspondence he was thirty-five, and unmarried; he
had inherited vast wealth in his youth and spent it freely. He was
ostentatious, even for an age when extravagance was fashionable; but
although he was conceited and on occasions foolish, he was certainly
possessed of considerable intellectual gifts, and the things which
interested him most in life were literature, music, and the fine arts. The
letter shows us that he must have admired _Alcina_ sufficiently to ask
the composer for a copy of the score. He also seized the opportunity of
offering him a libretto for a new oratorio. He had a very good opinion of
himself as a poet, and it is possible that he foresaw the importance of the
new type of semi-dramatic entertainment which Handel was creating. There
were plenty of Italian poetasters, even in London itself, who could put
together a conventional opera-book, but English oratorio was still in the
making, and it was not so easy to find a literary framework for it.
In any case, it was evident that Italian opera was a precarious enterprise.
In October the papers again gave out that Handel was going to give
oratorios and concerts at Covent Garden; no operas were announced, and for
the time being Handel appeared to have abandoned opera altogether. He made
no move until Lent 1736, and then brought out _Alexander's Feast_ (February
19), which he had set to music in the previous two months. Those ever
popular favourites _Esther_ and _Acis and Galatea_ followed it, and, as in
the foregoing season, Handel played organ concertos between the acts of
these works. It is evident that as Handel could not secure the great
Italian singers for his oratorios he felt obliged to offer his public some
other display of virtuosity, and his own performance on the organ seems to
have been considered a very powerful attraction.
The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
(April 27, 1736) provided him with unexpected opportunities for coming
before the public. It seems to have been at the desire of the Princess
herself that he undertook a short Italian opera season of eight
performances, which eventually was extended to ten. _Atalanta_, Handel's
new opera for this season, in which the chief singer was Gizziello,
then making his first appearance in England, was composed especially to
celebrate the royal nuptials, and seems to have finally converted the
Prince of Wales to the music of Handel. He now became a regular supporter
of Handel's theatre, with the result that the King promptly withdrew his
patronage, as he refused to be seen in the same house as the Prince.
Encouraged by this sign of princely favour, Handel reopened Covent Garden
in November with a revival of _Alcina_, followed by _Atalanta_. Three more
new operas were ready, or nearly so; Handel seems to have prepared himself
for the winter in better time than usual. But neither _Arminio_ (January
12, 1737), nor _Giustino_ (February 16), nor even _Berenice_, with its
famous minuet (May 18), could save Handel from ruin. The rival opera-house
was in no better case. Handel was obliged to close Covent Garden on June 1,
and the Haymarket followed suit ten days later. Opera at both houses had
been killed, mainly by the folly of party strife.