Handel | Page 9

Handel
to this poem, assumed that Handel was too modest to sing his own
praises; but he was not, for the original manuscript of the cantata was
found by the present writer in the University Library at Münster in
Westphalia. As Mainwaring informs us, Handel is compared by the
poet (whose name is not given) to Orpheus and indeed exalted above
him. "Orpheus," says the Cardinal, "could move rocks and trees, but he
could not make them sing; therefore thou art greater than Orpheus, for
thou compellest my aged Muse to song." The style of both words and
music suggests that the whole cantata was thrown off, as Mainwaring
suggests, on the spur of the moment, and this improvisation may well
have taken place at one of the Arcadians' garden parties, for there is a
well-known account of a similar improvisation by the poet Zappi and
the composer Alessandro Scarlatti.
Handel was by this time fully accepted as one of the leading musicians
in Italy, for in June he composed a pastoral, _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_,
for the marriage of the Duke of Alvito at Naples on July 19. It was in
July 1708 that the Austrian Viceroy of Naples, Count Daun, was
succeeded by Cardinal Grimani, who, towards the end of the year,
persuaded Alessandro Scarlatti to return to the service of the royal
chapel. As a good friend to Scarlatti, the Cardinal was sure to interest
himself in Handel, and it was probably through him that Handel was
commissioned to write an opera for Venice, as the Grimani were a great
Venetian family and owned the principal opera-house there. How long
Handel stayed at Naples we do not know; all that Mainwaring tells us is
that he was taken up by a Spanish princess, but, as Naples had
belonged to Spain for a hundred and fifty years, Spanish princesses can
have been no rarities there, and it is impossible to identify this lady.
From July 1708 until December 1709 we lose sight of Handel entirely.
On December 26, the first night of the carnival season, his opera

Agrippina was produced at Venice. The libretto was by Cardinal
Grimani, who had already written other dramas for music, all produced,
like Handel's, at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice. Venice
was the first city which had undertaken opera on a commercial basis,
open to the public on payment, whereas in other places it depended for
many years on the munificence of princes and nobles. At Venice there
existed not one theatre, but several, devoted to opera, each called after
the name of the parish in which it was situated, and, of these, the
theatre of St. John Chrysostom, built by the Grimani family and still
standing (though much remodelled) under the name of Teatro Malibran,
was the largest and most important. The Inquisition took a more
tolerant view of opera than the Pope; a Venetian preacher admonished
actors and singers to remember that they "were abominated of God, but
tolerated by the Government by desire of those who took delight in
their iniquities."
Agrippina aroused an extraordinary enthusiasm. "The theatre, at almost
every pause, resounded with shouts and acclamations of _viva il taro
Sassone!_ and other expressions of approbation too extravagant to be
mentioned" (Mainwaring). The title part was sung by Margherita
Durastanti, and another singer who appeared in the opera was Boschi,
the famous bass; both of them were to sing for Handel in London later
on. It is fairly certain that Boschi must have sung the part of
Polyphemus in Handel's Italian Aci e Galatea at Naples, for it bears a
striking resemblance to other songs written for Boschi, whose voice
was of exceptional range. The opera ran for twenty-seven nights.
After this unprecedented triumph it seems surprising that Handel did
not remain in Italy, where he had so many friends who could ensure his
success. It is probable that by the time Agrippina was performed, if not
indeed long before, he had been promised the post of Kapellmeister to
the court of Hanover. The actual appointment is dated June 16, 1710.
But no sooner was Handel appointed than he at once obtained leave of
absence, and went on, first to Düsseldorf, and then to London. It was
probably the Elector's intention that he should spend some time in
foreign travel before taking up regular duty.

The three years which Handel spent in Italy at the most impressionable
period of his life fixed the characteristics of his style as a composer,
and we may well suppose that they exercised a decisive influence on
his personality and character. His youth had been spent in the
respectable middle-class environment of his home at Halle; then came
the three years at Hamburg, fantastic and exciting, yet, despite all the
artistic stimulus of