Handel | Page 7

equally likely that after the success of Almira his views
on Italian opera underwent a change. It is obvious that Hamburg had no
further chances to offer him, and the attraction of Italy was at that time
so vivid to all young German musicians that not one of them would
have refused an opportunity of making the journey.
The date of Handel's departure from Hamburg is unknown, nor have we

the slightest information as to his whereabouts until we hear of him at
Rome in January 1707. Chrysander's statement that he spent Christmas
1706 with his mother at Halle is manifestly untrue. Mattheson says that
he travelled to Rome with a Herr von Binitz, but nothing is known of
this gentleman. His most natural route into Italy would be by the
Brenner, the historic road of all German pilgrims.
Handel may well have been glad to leave Hamburg, but Hamburg did
not forget him. He is mentioned in a theatrical manifesto of 1708 as
being already "beloved and celebrated in Italy"; Barthold Feind, one of
the Hamburg librettists, who in 1715 translated Handel's Rinaldo,
called him "the incomparable Handel, the Orpheus of our time"; and
from 1715 to 1734 almost all of Handel's London operas were
represented on the Hamburg stage.

CHAPTER II
Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the
Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at
Hanover--London: Rinaldo.
Handel spent three years in Italy. The known facts about his life there
are singularly few, and his biographers have often had to draw
copiously on their imagination. They may perhaps be forgiven for
doing so, since they rightly sought to emphasise the fact that these three
years were the most formative period of Handel's personality as a
composer. Handel came to Italy as a German; he left Italy an Italian, as
far as his music was concerned, and, despite all other influences, Italian
was the foundation of his musical language until the end of his life.
On January 14, 1707, a Roman chronicler noted the arrival of "a Saxon,
an excellent player on the harpsichord and a composer of music, who
has to-day displayed his ability in playing the organ in the church of St.
John [Lateran] to the amazement of everyone." This can hardly refer to
anyone else than Handel, who throughout his sojourn in Italy was
always known as "the Saxon" (_il Sassone_). We owe the discovery of

this important document to Mr. Newman Flower. The next date known
to us is that of April 11--on the manuscript of Handel's Dixit Dominus,
composed in Rome.
Most biographers have, however, assumed that Handel's first halt in
Italy would have been made at Florence, in view of the fact that Gian
Gastone de' Medici is known to have been at Florence from June 1705
to November 1706. The eldest son of the Grand Duke, Prince
Ferdinand, was an enthusiastic patron of music, who employed the best
musicians of the day to perform operas in his magnificent country
palace at Pratolino, some twelve miles north of Florence. It has been
suggested that Handel's first Italian opera, Rodrigo, was composed for
Ferdinand and performed early in 1707, but, in view of Mr. Flower's
discovery, this seems unlikely. Mr. Flower suggests, indeed, that
Ferdinand did not take much interest in Handel, otherwise he would not
have allowed him to go to Rome so soon. This is not impossible, for we
know that Ferdinand found the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti too
serious for his taste, and he may well have thought even less of
Handel's music, which (as we can see from the score of _Rodrigo_)
was still very German in style.
Rome could offer Handel no opportunities either for composing operas
or even for hearing them. Pope Clement X had permitted the opening
of a public opera-house (the Teatro Tordinona) in 1671, but it was
closed five years later by Innocent XI, who made every effort he could
to suppress opera both in public and in private. Innocent XII, who
became Pope in 1691, seems to have been, at first, less intolerant, for
the theatre was rebuilt, and a few performances were given; but in 1697
he ordered its destruction on grounds of public morality. Except for a
few performances of opera in private in 1701 and 1702 no operas were
produced in Rome until 1709.
Deprived of opera, the Romans devoted themselves to oratorio--which
in musical style was much the same thing--and to chamber music. The
most generous patron of music in Rome was the young Cardinal
Ottoboni, who had been raised to the purple in his early twenties, in
1690. He had indeed composed an opera himself, which was performed

in 1692, but he was more competent as a poet than as a musician; in
1690 Alessandro Scarlatti had set a libretto of his, La Statira.