´óÏó´«Ã½

This week of programmes looks at Handel’s life and work during an important decade of his life. The 1730s saw Handel create some of his best-loved works, but also saw him fall out with singers and patrons in London, endure a stroke and attendant poor mental health, and mourn the death of one of his chief supporters, Queen Caroline.

In this episode, Donald Macleod explores how Handel’s fallings out with the performers who had realised so many of his acclaimed stage works had an immediate impact on his work. Their defection to a new rival company, The Opera of the Nobility, under composer Nicola Porpora, was supported by the patronage of the Prince of Wales. Handel lost all but one of the singers with whom he’d previously worked, along with many of his patrons, and the two companies went head to head.

Opera: Arianna in Creta, HWV 32
Aria: Son qual stanco pellegrino (Act 2)
Sandrine Piau, soprano (Ariadne)
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset, conductor

Concerto Grosso in G major, Op. 6 No. 1, HWV 319
Academy of Ancient Music
Andrew Manze, conductor

Opera: Ariodante HWV 33
Aria: Scherza infida (Act 2)
Aria: Dopo notte (Act 3)
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano (Ariodante)
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Oratorio: Deborah, HWV 51
Chorus: See, the proud chief (Part 2)
Chorus: Let our glad songs to heav'n ascend (Part 3)
Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra
Junge Kantorei
Joachim Carlos Martini, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers