Travel broadens the mind, so they say. It certainly broadened the mind – and the compositional output – of Halle’s favourite son, George Frideric Handel. An extensive spell in Italy resulted in him being acclaimed as one of the great opera composers of the day, before taking up residence in London, where he became a naturalised British subject. Handel absorbed influences from Italy and England but also made a significant musical mark on both countries. Back in his home town, the Händel Festival Halle this year is programmed under the title “Foreign Worlds”, reflecting not only the cultural influences he drew from his travels abroad, but his fascination with distant lands, from exotic Egypt to Jerusalem and biblical settings.
In 1706, Handel was invited to Italy, where Gian Gastone de' Medici, who loved opera, was attempting to make Florence the musical capital of Italy. His greatest Italian opera, Agrippina, was premiered in Venice, earning the composer acclaim as Il caro Sassone (the dear Saxon) referring back to Handel's German roots. In Rome – where opera was banned in the Papal States – he learned to adapt, composing oratorios and pastoral cantatas. Then in 1710, Handel then took up residence in London to become Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, later King George I.
The Italian operas he composed for London were huge hits and Handel become a celebrity. Louis-François Roubiliac's statue of Handel (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum) was commissioned by Jonathan Tyers and first displayed in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. It depicts Handel as Orpheus, playing his lyre. It was the first life-size marble to depict a living artist – a huge accolade for this nationalised Briton. In Halle, the Quadriga Consort recreates the Vauxhall atmosphere with an eclectic programme of Renaissance, Baroque, folk and pop music.
Handel also established the English oratorio as a popular form, with no work greater than Messiah, written for Dublin in 1742, but revised for London a year later. Messiah features in the 2018 Handel Halle Festival line-up, performed by the excellent Basel La Cetra Barockorchester, but the eye-catching events in the programme that will surely have Baroque fans flocking there are the operas.
Berenice, Regina d’Egitto, was premiered at Covent Garden in 1737, but was not a success, running for just four performances. The plot is based on the life of Cleopatra Berenice III – not that Cleopatra – and the scramble to be her consort. Alessandro of Rome is the political choice, but Berenice loves Demetrio, a Macedonian prince who, just to complicate matters, is in love with her sister, Selene. Few of the opera’s vocal numbers are well known, although listeners should recognise the Sinfonia to Act 3, which Handel – a great recycler – later adapted as the overture to the Music for the Royal Fireworks. The programming of Berenice in Halle is important, for it marks the last of Handel’s 42 operas to have been performed there (a cycle starting with Orlando way back in 1922). Which other city could make sure a proud claim? The other Cleopatra also features in the festival, in one of Handel’s greatest operas Giulio Cesare in Egitto, a student performance at the Anhaltisches Theater, Dessau.