Editing George Frideric Handel (section)

=== Royal Academy of Music (1719–34) ===
{{Main|Royal Academy of Music (company)}}
[[File:Georg Friedrich Händel 3.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|The Chandos portrait of Händel by [[James Thornhill]], {{Circa|1720}}, held in the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]], [[University of Cambridge]]]]
In May 1719, [[Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne|The 1st Duke of Newcastle]], the [[Lord Chamberlain]], ordered Handel to look for new singers.<ref>{{harvnb|Deutsch|1955|p=89}}</ref> Handel travelled to [[Dresden]] to attend the newly built opera. He saw ''Teofane'' by [[Antonio Lotti]], and engaged members of the cast for the Royal Academy of Music, founded by a group of aristocrats to assure themselves a constant supply of baroque opera or [[opera seria]]. Handel may have invited John Smith, his fellow student in Halle, and his son [[John Christopher Smith|Johann Christoph Schmidt]], to become his secretary and [[amanuensis]].<!--assistants in what respect? most of the time probably copying his music. It is said Schmidt left his wife behind.--><ref>{{harvnb|Dean|2006|p=226}} According to Dean they could not have reached London before 1716. In 1743, Smith wrote in a letter that he had been in Handel's service for 24 years.</ref> By 1723 he had moved into a [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] house at 25 [[Brook Street]], which he rented for the rest of his life.<ref>{{harvnb|Burrows|1994|p=387}}</ref> This house, where he rehearsed, copied music, and sold tickets, is now the [[Handel House Museum]].{{efn|In 2000, the upper stories of 25 [[Brook Street]] were leased to the Handel House Trust, and after extensive restoration, the [[Handel House Museum]] opened to the public, with events including concerts of baroque music.}} During twelve months between 1724 and 1725, Handel wrote three successful operas, ''[[Giulio Cesare]]'', ''[[Tamerlano]]'' and ''[[Rodelinda (opera)|Rodelinda]]''. Handel's operas are filled with [[da capo aria]]s, such as ''[[Svegliatevi nel core]]''. After composing ''Silete venti'', he concentrated on opera and stopped writing cantatas. ''[[Scipio (opera)|Scipio]]'', from which the regimental slow march of the British [[Grenadier Guards]] is derived,<ref>{{harvnb|Deutsch|1955|p=194}}</ref> was performed as a stopgap, waiting for the arrival of [[Faustina Bordoni]].

In 1727, Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for the [[Coronation of the British monarch|Coronation]] ceremony of [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]]. One of these, ''[[Zadok the Priest]]'', has been played at every British coronation ceremony since.<ref>{{cite web | author = Imogen Levy | url = http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/coronations/guide-to-the-coronation-service | title = Guide to the Coronation Service | publisher = Westminster Abbey | date = 2 June 1953 | access-date = 28 May 2012 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101205061127/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/coronations/guide-to-the-coronation-service | archive-date = 5 December 2010 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> The words to ''Zadok the Priest'' are taken from the [[King James Bible]].<ref>{{cite news |title=George Frideric Handel – Zadok the Priest |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/KS2-george-frideric-handel-zadok-the-priest/znvrkmn |access-date=18 February 2021 |agency=BBC |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416212526/https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/KS2-george-frideric-handel-zadok-the-priest/znvrkmn |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1728, John Gay's ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'', which made fun of the type of Italian opera Handel had popularised in London, premiered at [[Lisle's Tennis Court|Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre]] and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the longest run in theatre history up to that time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net%2Fth-longr.html|title=Stage Beauty|website=www.stagebeauty.net|access-date=26 January 2013|archive-date=13 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613222559/http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net%2Fth-longr.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After nine years the Royal Academy of Music ceased to function but Handel soon started a new company.

{{multiple image|align=right
 | footer    = [[Handel House Museum]] at 25 [[Brook Street]], [[Mayfair]], London, with a close up of the [[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] on the wall
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 | image1    = London Handel House.jpg
 | width1    = 135
 | image2    = GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL 1685-1759 Composer lived in this house from 1723 and died here.jpg
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}}

The [[Her Majesty's Theatre|Queen's Theatre]] at the Haymarket (now His Majesty's Theatre), established in 1705 by architect and playwright [[John Vanbrugh]], quickly became an opera house.<ref>"theatrical monopoly" in Banham, Martin ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' p. 1105 (Cambridge University Press, 1995) {{ISBN|0-521-43437-8}}</ref> Between 1711 and 1739, more than 25 of Handel's operas premièred there.<ref>[http://gfhandel.org/composition.htm ''Handel's Compositions''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130044046/http://gfhandel.org/composition.htm |date=30 January 2009 }} GFHandel.org, Retrieved 21 December 2007</ref> In 1729, Handel became joint manager of the theatre with [[John James Heidegger]].

Handel travelled to Italy to engage new singers and also composed seven more operas, among them the comic masterpiece ''[[Partenope]]'' and the "magic" opera ''[[Orlando (opera)|Orlando]]''.{{sfn|Dent|2004|p={{page needed|date=August 2019}}}} After two commercially successful English oratorios ''[[Esther (Handel)|Esther]]'' and ''[[Deborah (Handel)|Deborah]]'', he was able to invest again in the [[South Sea Company]]. Handel reworked his ''Acis and Galatea'' which then became his most successful work ever. Handel failed to compete with the [[Opera of the Nobility]], who engaged musicians such as [[Johann Adolph Hasse]], [[Nicolo Porpora]] and the famous castrato [[Farinelli]]. The strong support by [[Frederick, Prince of Wales]] caused conflicts in the royal family. In March 1734 Handel composed a wedding anthem ''[[Wedding anthem for Princess Anne|This is the day which the Lord hath made]]'', and a [[serenata]] ''[[Parnasso in Festa]]'' for [[Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange|Anne, Princess Royal]].<ref>{{harvnb|Dent|2004|p=33}}</ref>

Despite the problems the Opera of the Nobility was causing him at the time, Handel's neighbour in Brook Street, [[Mary Delany]], reported on a party she invited Handel to at her house on 12 April 1734 where he was in good spirits:<blockquote>I had Lady Rich and her daughter, Lady Cath. Hanmer and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Percival, [[Sir John Stanley, 1st Baronet|Sir John Stanley]] and my brother, Mrs. Donellan, [[Anna Maria Strada|Strada]] [star soprano of Handel's operas] and Mr. Coot. [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury|Lord Shaftesbury]] begged of Mr. Percival to bring him, and being a profess'd friend of Mr. Handel (who was here also) was admitted; 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 sang from seven o'clock till eleven. I gave them tea and coffee, and about half an hour after nine had a salver brought in of chocolate, mulled white wine, and biscuits. Everybody was easy and seemed pleased.<ref>{{cite web|title=Synopsis of Arianna in Creta |url=http://www.handelhouse.org/discover/george-frideric-handel/opera-synopses/arianna-in-creta |website=Handelhouse.org |publisher=Handel House Museum |access-date=23 July 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726104139/http://www.handelhouse.org/discover/george-frideric-handel/opera-synopses/arianna-in-creta |archive-date=26 July 2014 |df=dmy }}</ref></blockquote>