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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 the crackling tension between Handel and his fashionable librettist Metastasio, and his falling out with the singers in the opera company on whom his work depended.

In 1730 Handel was a popular composer for opera, still fashionable and successful. But he was also a volatile, hot-blooded man who could rub people up the wrong way. He was no diplomat, and spoke his mind forcefully, not tactfully. His collaborators were often on the receiving end of his passionate opinions.

Oratorio: Esther, HWV 50b (revised version 1732)
Air: Tune Your Harps to Cheerful Strains (Act 1)
Chorus: The Lord Our Enemy Has Slain (Act 3)
Rebecca Outram, soprano (Israelite Woman)
London Handel Choir
London Handel Orchestra
Laurence Cummings, conductor

Trio Sonata in C major, HWV 403
The Brook Street Band

Seranata: Acis and Galatea, HWV 49
Aria: Hush, ye pretty warbling quire (Act 1)
Sophie Daneman, soprano (Galatea)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, conductor

Concerto Grosso in D major Op. 3 No. 6, HWV 317
Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra
Christopher Hogwood, conductor

Orlando, HWV 31
Ah! Stigie larve; Vaghe pupille (Act 1)
Patricia Bardon, mezzo-soprano (Orlando)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers