Evidently!Originally Posted by DracoM
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.
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) material.
) with Renée Fleming and Susan Graham, under William Christie - riveting from start to finish, almost literally breathtaking to look at, stunningly sung (not a Fleming fan, but she was AMAZING that night!): a multi-sensory experience which made nonsense of almost every other Handel production I've ever seen (not least the Glydenbourne one which seemed to me silly, and to trivialise the piece). Some glimpses of that Paris performance in this French TV report: 
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