Quote Originally Posted by DracoM View Post
Why have the many, many miles of Handelian 'opera' become such revered things?

The man churned them out, re-wrote them, tinkered and re-cast etc. It's just clever musical wallpaper while the audiences talked about life, the universe and their dresses and latest amours.

WHY? I just do not get it.
Evidently!

For some of us (well, at least me!) Handel is the only Great Composer of Great Operas between Monteverdi and Mozart. The fact that he "churned them out" is no more relevant to a discussion of their quality than it is to Shakespeare's plays. (Both lived before the Romantic notion that one had to agonize over a work of Art for years before delivering it to the public with all the pain of having a limb amputated.)

Listen to the arias: the range of psychological states that Handel releases from these simplistic and even risible words is awe-inspiring. The mix of Farce and Tragedy (often simultaneously) that only Music can expose convincingly. The power of the choruses. And, perhaps best of all, the insight into the central characters' inner lives as revealed to the audience in the recitatives that preceed the Arias (and didn't Janet Baker perform these superbly?! Just a infinitissimal change of tone colour and the mood is transformed!)

Glorious Stuff!

Best Wishes.