Topics in the History of Opera: Handel and Opera on the London Stage

Once rarely performed because of their presumed lack of dramatic viability, Handel's operas have become a staple of the standard repertory, inspiring inventive productions in major opera houses, featuring superb singing and playing, as popular-arguably-as they were in Handel's London. Taking into account the libretto conventions, the singers, productions, and performance practice (then and now), the social, political, and economic circumstances in eighteenth-century London, this seminar will explore the narrative, musical, and dramatic features of Handel's London operas.