Händel

Add to favorites Send to a friend Send to the cell phone Print

Georg Friedrich Händel is one of the foremost figures of Baroque music. He cultivated the art of vocal music from his early youth, notably after being exposed to the influence of Italian music during his journey to Venice, Florence, Naples and Rome (1706-1709). Händel was the chapel master of the prince elector of Hanover. When the latter ascended the British throne as George I (1714), he became his patron in London, where the composer had settled after the triumph of Rinaldo (1711). From 1719 onwards Händel was a director of the Royal Academy of Music.

The aria -a vocal composition to an instrumental accompaniment sung by a soloist in an opera, oratorio or cantata- plays a decisive role in Baroque music. In operas it creates a lyrical pause in the development of the plot and allows the characters to voice their feelings or comment on the action. It also gives singers a chance to show off their talents. From the mid-17th to the mid-18th century, the so-called aria da capo -of which Händel was a leading exponent- became the star feature of opera seria, the predominant genre in European theatres at the time. The structure is ternary (A-B-A’), the repetition (A') affording an opportunity for highly elaborate variations and ornamentations, which may be improvised. This concert shows the wide range of emotions and dramatic situations conveyed by the arias Händel wrote for different genres -primarily oratorios and operas- and the rich vocalism they contained.