Royal Academy of Music (company) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Royal Academy of Music was a company founded in February 1719, during George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

's residence at Cannons

Handel at Cannons

George Frideric Handel was the house composer at Cannons from August 1717 until February 1719. The Chandos Anthems and other important works by Handel were conceived, written or first performed at Cannons....

, by a group of aristocrats to secure themselves a constant supply of baroque opera or opera seria

Opera seria

Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...

. It commissioned large numbers of new operas from three of the leading composers in Europe: Handel, Attilio Ariosti

Attilio Ariosti

Attilio Malachia Ariosti was an Italian composer in the Baroque style, born in Bologna. He produced more than 30 operas and oratorios, numerous cantatas and instrumental works.-Life:He was born into the middle class...

and Giovanni Bononcini. The Academy took the legal form of a joint-stock corporation under letters patent issued by King George I of England

George I of Great Britain

George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....

for a term of 21 years with a governor, a deputy governor and at least fifteen directors. The (first) Royal Academy lasted for nine seasons instead of twenty-one (soon reduced to fourteen).

Handel was appointed as Master of the orchestra

Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

responsible not only for engaging soloists but also for adapting operas from abroad and for providing possible libretti for his own use, generally provided from Italy.

Initially the librettist Paolo Antonio Rolli

Paolo Antonio Rolli

Paolo Antonio Rolli was an Italian librettist and poet.He was born in Rome, Italy and like Metastasio was trained by Gian Vincenzo Gravina. He worked in London from 1715 to 1744 where he became Italian tutor to the prince of Wales and the Royal Princesses...

was the Italian secretary of the Academy and to be replaced by Nicola Francesco Haym

Nicola Francesco Haym

Nicola Francesco Haym was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theatre manager and performer, and numismatist. He is best remembered for adapting texts into libretti for the London operas of George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini...

within a few years.

The subscribers

The capital of ₤10,000 was divided in 50 shares of ₤200 each. Sixty-three people initially subscribed for shares. The issue was rapidly oversubscribed: several took more than one share: ichard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington|Lord Burlington subscribed ₤1000 (James Lees-Milne

James Lees-Milne

James Lees-Milne was an English writer and expert on country houses. He was an architectural historian, novelist, and a biographer. He is also remembered as a diarist.-Biography:...

, The Earls of Creation 1962:96). Otto Erich Deutsch

Otto Erich Deutsch

Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...

printed a list of 63 names, a later list by Charles Burney

Charles Burney

Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...

carried 73 names. The extra ten were perhaps those admitted at the directors' meetings on 30 November and 2 December 1719. This would give a total capital of ₤17,600.

The first twelve and main subscribers listed, were the Lord Chamberlain

Lord Chamberlain

The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....

Duke of Kent

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent

Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent KG PC was a British politician and courtier.-Family:He was a son of Anthony Grey, 11th Earl of Kent and Mary Grey, 1st Baroness Lucas of Crudwell...

appointed as governor but never on duty as such, followed by the Duke of Newcastle as governor, the Duke of Grafton

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton KG PC was an Irish and English politician.He was born the only child of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton and Isabella Bennet, 2nd Countess of Arlington...

, the Duke of Portland

Henry Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland

Henry Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland , styled Viscount Woodstock from 1689 until 1709, was a British politician and colonial statesman....

, the Duke of Manchester

Charles Montagu, 1st Duke of Manchester

Charles Edward Montagu, 1st Duke of Manchester, 4th Earl of Manchester , son of Robert Montagu, 3rd Earl of Manchester, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and succeeded to his father's earldom in 1683...

the deputy governor, the Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, MP, PC was the first of fourteen children by Sir James Brydges, 3rd Baronet of Wilton Castle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 8th Baron Chandos; and Elizabeth Barnard...

, the Duke of Montrose

James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose

James Graham, 1st Duke and 4th Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish aristocratic statesman in the early eighteenth century....

, the Earl of Sunderland

Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland

Sir Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland KG PC , known as Lord Spencer from 1688 to 1702, was an English statesman...

, the Earl of Rochester

Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon

Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon and 2nd Earl of Rochester, PC was an English nobleman and politician. He was styled Lord Hyde from 1682 to 1711.-Life:...

, the Earl of Berkeley

James Berkeley, 3rd Earl of Berkeley

Vice-Admiral James Berkeley, 3rd Earl of Berkeley KG, PC was the son of Charles Berkeley, 2nd Earl of Berkeley and the Hon. Elizabeth Noel. He was known by the courtesy title of Viscount Dursley prior to succeeding as Earl of Berkeley in 1710...

, the Earl of Burlington

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork PC , born in Yorkshire, England, was the son of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork...

, the Earl of Litchfield

George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield

George Henry Lee I, 2nd Earl of Lichfield was the sixth son of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield and his wife Charlotte Fitzroy, an illegitimate daughter of Charles II by his mistress, the celebrated courtesan Barbara Villiers. On 14 July 1716 George Henry Lee succeeded his father as the 2nd...

and the Earl of Lincoln

Henry Clinton, 7th Earl of Lincoln

Henry Clinton, 7th Earl of Lincoln, KG, PC was the son of Francis Clinton, 6th Earl of Lincoln and his second wife Susan Penniston, daughter of Anthony Penniston...

.

In 1723 the Academy paid a dividend of seven percent. It was the only dividend they ever paid.

Directors

John Vanbrugh

Sir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...

and Colonel John Blathwayt, noted for his musical talents who had studied harpsichord under Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.-Life:Scarlatti was born in...

, seem to have been the only two competent directors. Other directors were Lord Bingley

Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley

Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley, PC was an English politician of the 18th century.-Life:Robert Benson was born in Wakefield. He went to school in London before studying at Christ's College, Cambridge...

, Mr James Bruce, Mr Benjamin Mildmay, 1st Earl FitzWalter

Benjamin Mildmay, 1st Earl FitzWalter

Benjamin Mildmay, 1st Earl FitzWalter PC , styled The Honourable Benjamin Mildmay until 1728 and known as The Lord FitzWalter between 1728 and 1730, was a British politician...

, Mr Bryan Fairfax

Lord Fairfax of Cameron

thumb|Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of CameronLord Fairfax of Cameron is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Despite holding a Scottish peerage, the Lords Fairfax of Cameron are members of an ancient Yorkshire family, of which the Fairfax Baronets of The Holmes are members of another branch...

, Mr George Harrison, Mr (Thomas?) Smith, Mr Francis Whitworth (A brother of Charles Whitworth

Charles Whitworth, 1st Baron Whitworth of Galway

Charles Whitworth, 1st Baron Whitworth was a British diplomat.-Early life and education:Whitworth was possibly born at Blore Pike, near Eccleshall, Staffordshire. He entered Westminster School as a Queen's Scholar in 1690, and then entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1694...

), Doctor John Arbuthnot

John Arbuthnot

John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, , was a physician, satirist and polymath in London...

, Mr John James Heidegger

John James Heidegger

John James Heidegger was a Swiss count and leading impresario of masquerades in the early part of the 18th century....

, the Duke of Queensbury

Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry

Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, 2nd Duke of Dover, PC was a Scottish nobleman.The son of James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, 1st Duke of Dover, and Mary Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle, 3rd Viscount Dungarvan, was a Privy Counsellor and Vice Admiral of Scotland.He took up the cause...

, the Earl of Stair

John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair

Field Marshal John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair KT PC was a Scottish soldier and diplomat.-Military career:Despite being born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dalrymple spent his early life mostly in the Netherlands and he studied at Leiden University...

, the Earl of Waldegrave

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave KG PC was a British ambassador.Waldegrave was the son of the 1st Baron Waldegrave and Henrietta FitzJames, the illegitimate daughter of James II and Arabella Churchill....

, Lord Chetwind

Walter Chetwynd, 1st Viscount Chetwynd

Walter Chetwynd, 1st Viscount Chetwynd , of Rudge and Ingestre, Staffordshire, succeeded in 1693 to the Ingestre estates on the death of his cousin Walter Chetwynd . He was the eldest son of John Chetwynd...

, Lord Stanhope

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield PC KG was a British statesman and man of letters.A Whig, Lord Stanhope, as he was known until his father's death in 1726, was born in London. After being educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he went on the Grand Tour of the continent...

, Thomas Coke of Norfolk

Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (fifth creation)

Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, KB was a wealthy English land-owner and patron of the arts. He is particularly noted for commissioning the design and construction of Holkham Hall in north Norfolk. Between 1722 and 1728, he was Member of Parliament for Norfolk.He was the son of Edward Coke ...

, Conyers Darcy

Conyers Darcy

Sir Conyers Darcy or Darcey, KB was a British politician and courtier of the 18th century. He was a younger brother of Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness....

, Brigadier-General Dormer

Baron Dormer

Baron Dormer, of Wyng or Wenge in the County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 30 June 1615 for Sir Robert Dormer, 1st Baronet. He had only twenty days earlier, on 10 June 1615, been created a Baronet, of Wenge in the County of Buckingham, in the Baronetage of...

, Colonel O'Hara, Brigadier-General Hunter, William Poultney

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, PC was an English politician, a Whig, created the first Earl of Bath in 1742 by King George II; he is sometimes stated to have been Prime Minister, for the shortest term ever , though most modern sources reckon that he cannot be considered to have held the...

and Major-General Wade

George Wade

Field Marshal George Wade served as a British military commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.-Early career:Wade, born in Kilavally, Westmeath in Ireland, was commissioned into the Earl of Bath's Regiment in 1690 and served in Flanders in 1692, during the Nine Years War, earning a...

Musicians

On May 14, 1719 Handel was ordered by Lord Chamberlain

Lord Chamberlain

and governor of the corporation, the Duke of Newcastle, to look for new singers. Handel travelled to Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

to attend the newly built opera. He saw Teofane by Antonio Lotti

Antonio Lotti

Antonio Lotti was an Italian composer of classical music.Lotti was born in Venice, although his father Matteo was Kapellmeister at Hanover at the time. In 1682, Lotti began studying with Lodovico Fuga and Giovanni Legrenzi, both of whom were employed at St Mark's Basilica, Venice's principal church...

, composed for the wedding of August III of Poland, and engaged the cast on behalf of the Royal Academy of Music. In April 1720 the Academy began producing operas. The orchestra consisted of seventeen violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

s, two viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

s, four cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

s, two double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

es, four oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s, three bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

s, a theorbo

Theorbo

A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second pegboxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pièces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angélique or angelica. The etymology of the name...

and a trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

.

The brothers Pietro and Prospera Castrucci as well as Johan Helmich Roman

Johan Helmich Roman

Johan Helmich Roman was a Swedish Baroque composer. He has been called "the father of Swedish music" or "the Swedish Handel."-Life:...

and John Jones were violinist. Bononcini was a cellist, he and Handel presumably accompanied the recitative

Recitative

Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

s in all the operas. Filippo Amadei

Filippo Amadei

Filippo Amadei was an Italian composer from Reggio Emilia, who was active in Rome and London.He appears to have worked as composer of cantatas oratorios and as a cellist for Cardinal Ottoboni from 1690 to 1711, the year of his oratorio Teodosio il giovane , then again 1723-1729.From 1719-1722 he...

, one of the composers of Muzio Scevola
Muzio Scevola
Muzio Scevola is an opera in three acts about Gaius Mucius Scaevola. The Italian-language libretto was by Paolo Antonio Rolli, adapted from a text by Silvio Stampiglia. The music for the first act was composed by Filippo Amadei , the second act by Giovanni Battista Bononcini, and the third by...

, also played cello, Pietro Giuseppe Sandoni, who would soon marry Francesca Cuzzoni

Francesca Cuzzoni

Francesca Cuzzoni was an Italian operatic soprano of the Baroque era.-Early career:Cuzzoni was born in Parma. Her father, Angelo, was a professional violinist, and her singing teacher was Francesco Lanzi. She made her debut in her home city in 1714, singing in La virtù coronata, o Il Fernando by...

, was the second harpsichord player. John Baptist Grano

John Baptist Grano

John Baptist Grano was a trumpeter, flutist, and composer based in London, England, who worked with George Frederick Handel at the opera house in the city's Haymarket....

was the trumpeter, John Festing played oboe; Charles Frederick Weideman was the flautist and oboist and is also known from his appearance in The Enraged Musician
The Enraged Musician
The Enraged Musician is a 1741 etching and engraving by English artist William Hogarth which depicts a comic scene of a violinist driven to distraction by the cacophony outside his window...

.
The first opera staged by the Academy was Numitore composed by Giuseppe Porta

Giuseppe Porta

Giuseppe Porta , also known as Giuseppe Salviati, was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance period, active mostly in Venice....

, the second was Radamisto

Radamisto (Handel)

Radamisto is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on L'amor tirannico, o Zenobia by Domenico Lalli and Zenobia by Matteo Noris...

by Handel and the third Narciso by Domenico Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...

Operas and singers

Extravagant fees were offered to entice the best performers from Italy. For the Margherita Durastanti

Margherita Durastanti

Margherita Durastanti was an Italian singer of the 18th century. Vocally, she is best described as a soprano, though later in her career her tessitura descended to that of a mezzo-soprano. First heard of professionally in Mantua in 1700-01, she later appeared in Bologna and Reggio Emilia , Milan...

in the role of Radamisto

Radamisto (Handel)

Radamisto is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on L'amor tirannico, o Zenobia by Domenico Lalli and Zenobia by Matteo Noris...

, Handel wrote one of his favourite arias, Ombra cara di mia sposa. The great singers who were to be the brightest stars of the Royal Academy during the next few years, such as the castrato

Castrato

A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's...

Senesino

Senesino was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel.-Early life and career:...

and the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni

Francesca Cuzzoni

, had not yet arrived in London. Senesino had obligations to fulfill and arrived in September 1720, accompanied by a group of outstanding singers: the castrato Matteo Berselli, the soprano Maddalena Salvai and the bass Giuseppe Boschi.

Handel used the libretto of Teofane for his Ottone

Ottone

Ottone, re di Germania is an opera by George Frideric Handel, to an Italian–language libretto adapted by Nicola Francesco Haym from the libretto by Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino for Antonio Lotti's opera Teofane. It was the first new opera written for the Royal Academy of Music 's fourth season...

, with Cuzzoni as prima donna

Prima donna

Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...

. It became his most successful opera in the years of the Academy.
In 1724 and 1725 Handel wrote several masterpieces: Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...

with many da capo

Da capo

Da Capo is a musical term in Italian, meaning from the beginning . It is often abbreviated D.C. It is a composer or publisher's directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space. In small pieces this might be the same thing as a repeat, but in larger works D.C...

arias that made him so famous and Anastasia Robinson

Anastasia Robinson

Anastasia Robinson was an English soprano, later contralto, of the Baroque era. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.-Early life and initial career:...

as Cornelia. Not a castrato but a tenor, Francesco Borosini, sang the leading role in Handel's most powerfully tragic opera Tamerlano

Tamerlano

Tamerlano is an opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music , with music by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's Tamerlano together with another libretto entitled Bajazet after Nicolas Pradon's Tamerlan, ou La Mort de...

. Insisting on adding the death of Bayezid I

Bayezid I

Bayezid I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1389 to 1402. He was the son of Murad I and Valide Sultan Gülçiçek Hatun.-Biography:Bayezid was born in Edirne and spent his youth in Bursa, where he received a high-level education...

he had a direct role in shaping the climax of the work. Charles Burney

Charles Burney

Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...

called the prison scene's "Chi di voi" in Rodelinda "one of the finest pathetic airs that can be found in all [Handel's] works." In between Bononcini was dismissed, and went into private service, Robinson retired and Joseph Goupy

Joseph Goupy

Joseph Goupy was a French engraver, painter, set designer and watercolourist. One of his patrons was Frederick, Prince of Wales, and with his brother Francis, he was a member of the St Martin's Lane Academy, studying under his uncle Louis Goupy...

may have been employed as a scene-painter.

Scipio, starring Cuzzoni, was performed as a stopgap. For Siroe

Siroe

Siroe, re di Persia , HWV 24, is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was his 12th opera for the Royal Academy of Music and was written for the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. The opera uses an Italian-language libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Metastasio's...

Handel used for the first time a libretto originally by Pietro Metastasio. In Alessandro

Alessandro (opera)

Alessandro is an opera written for the Royal Academy of Music composed by George Frideric Handel in 1726. Paolo Rolli was the librettist and based the story on Ortensio Mauro's La superbia d'Alessandro...

and Admeto

Admeto

Admeto, re di Tessaglia is a three-act opera written for the Royal Academy of Music with music composed by George Frideric Handel to an Italian-language libretto prepared by Nicola Haym. The story is partly based on Euripedes' Alcestis. The opera's first performance was at the Haymarket Theatre...

the prima donna

Prima donna

Faustina Bordoni

Faustina Bordoni was an Italian mezzo-soprano.-Early career:She was born in Venice and brought up under the protection of the aristocratic brother composers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello. Her singing teacher was another composer, Michelangelo Gasparini...

appeared together with Cuzzoni. It must have been difficult for the two rival queens to collaborate after their fight on stage at the King’s Theatre and the abandonment of the performance of Astianatte, an opera by Giovanni Bononcini.
The death of George I caused the performance of Riccardo Primo

Riccardo Primo

Riccardo primo, re d’Inghilterra is an opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was by Paolo Antonio Rolli, after Francesco Briani's Isacio tiranno, set by Antonio Lotti in 1710...

to be postponed until the next season and prompted both librettist Paolo Rolli and composer to make significant changes to their work. They decided to give the patriotic drum a good thump by adding gratuitous references to British valour, justice and power. In 1728 John Gay

John Gay

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...

's The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...

premiered at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre

Lisle's Tennis Court

Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called "the Duke's Playhouse", or "the...

and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the longest run in theatre history up to that time. It marked the beginning of a change in London musical taste and fashion, away from Italian opera in favor of something less highbrow, more home-grown, and more easily intelligible. The 1727-28 season boasted three new operas, but in 1729 the directors agreed to suspend activity after losing money. Not Handel, he had been the only one on their paylist. He immediately started a New or Second Academy of Music.

The Royal Academy produced 461 performances, 235 were works by Handel: 13 operas. Eight operas were by Bononcini (114 performances) and seven operas by Ariosti (54 performances).

The New or Second Academy

In 1729 Handel became joint manager of the King's Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...

with the Swiss aristocrat John James Heidegger

John James Heidegger

John James Heidegger was a Swiss count and leading impresario of masquerades in the early part of the 18th century....

. Handel travelled to Italy to engage seven new singers. In Bologna he met with Owen Swiny

Owen Swiny

Owen Swiny was an Irish theatre impressario and art dealer active in London.-Life:Having attended Trinity College, Dublin from 1694, he was working at the Drury Lane Theatre by spring 1703 with Christopher Rich. He also adapted Molière's L'amour médecin as The Quacks, putting it on at the Drury...

, a former theatre manager from London. Back home he composed seven more operas, but the public did not come to listen to his music but to hear the singers. On his way back he visited his mother and probably met with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach , the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach, was a German composer and performer...

, sent by his father, as the story goes. Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, working only 20 miles away in Köthen

Köthen (Anhalt)

Köthen is a city in Germany. It is the capital of the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, about north of Halle.Köthen is the location of the main campus and the administrative center of the regional technical university Hochschule Anhalt which is especially strong in information...

, arrived too late to meet with his famous colleague, who had left earlier that day. Back in London Handel produced Ezio, an expensive disaster. Charles Burney

Charles Burney

Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...

ranked the score of his next opera Sosarme

Sosarme

Sosarme, re di Media is an opera by George Frideric Handel written for the Royal Academy of Music . The text was based on an earlier libretto by Antonio Salvi, Dionisio, Re di Portogallo , and adapted by an unknown writer. Composed in 1732, the original setting of Portugal was changed to Sardis in...

among his most pleasing; Dean states the opera does more honour to Handel as a musician than as a dramatist. Handel composed Partenope

Partenope

Partenope is an opera by George Frideric Handel, first performed at the King's Theatre in London on 24 February 1730.-Background:...

, Poro

Poro (opera)

Poro, re dell'Indie is an opera seria in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel...

, and Orlando

Orlando (opera)

Orlando is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the Royal Academy of Music . The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's L'Orlando after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which was also the source of Handel's operas Alcina and...

, but the public stayed away after the scandals between the singers, the bad and unreal libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

s in Italian, and stardom. In the long run Handel failed to compete with the Opera of the Nobility

Opera of the Nobility

The Opera of the Nobility was an opera company set up and funded in 1733 by a group of nobles opposed to George II of England, in order to rival the Second Royal Academy of Music company under Handel .Nicola Porpora was invited to be its musical director and Owen Swiny considered as its talent scout...

, who had engaged musicians such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Nicolo Porpora and the famous castrato Farinelli

Farinelli

Farinelli , was the stage name of Carlo Maria Broschi, celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera.- Early years :...

.

Frederick, Prince of Wales

Frederick, Prince of Wales

Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...

and the anti-German faction of the English nobility who backed the opera of Nobility sought to gain ground against the German court by attacking the foreigener Handel, little concerned about the paradoxy of the situation: the nationalistic faction fought with the weapon of the foreign Italian opera and summoned the aid of foreigners such as Hasse, himself an Italianized German like Handel.

Handel had composed about 30 operas for the Royal Academy. and moved his productions to Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

. The Opera of Nobility took over the King's Theatre.

The Academy survived until 1734, after it encountered many difficulties: arguments between Handel and his singers, the dismissal of Paolo Rolli after quarrels with the directors, disagreement between the directors themselves, about the employment of new singers and squabbles on stage, but for all the Academy's problems, its success was enormous.

Sources

Dean, W.
Winton Dean
Winton Dean is an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research concerning the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of Handel, as detailed in his book Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques .Dean was born in Birkenhead...

& J.M. Knapp (1995) Handel's operas 1704-1726. Revised Edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-198-16441-6
Dean, W. (2006) “Handel’s Operas, 1726–1741”, (The Boydell Press). Woodbridge. ISBN 1-84383-268-2
Dean, W. (1993) "Handel's Sosarme, a Puzzle Opera". In: Essays on Opera. Oxford University Press. Oxford. ISBN 0198163843.
Deutsch, O.E.
Otto Erich Deutsch
Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...

(1955), Handel: A Documentary Biography. W.W. Norton & Company Inc Publishers. New York. Reprint 1974, Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-70624-5
Bukofzer, M.F.
Manfred Bukofzer
Manfred Bukofzer was a German-American musicologist and humanist. He studied at Heidelberg University and the Stern conservatory in Berlin, but left Germany in 1933, going to Basle, where he received his doctorate. In 1939 he moved to the United States where he remained, becoming a U.S. citizen...

(1948) Music in the Baroque Era. From Monteverdi to Bach. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. London, Toronto, Melbourne. Reprint 1983. ISBN 0460034316.
Handel, A Celebration of his life and times, 1685-1759. Edited by Jacob Simon. Published by the National Portrait Gallery, London. ISBN 0-904017-68-0

The subscribers

Directors

Musicians

Operas and singers

The New or Second Academy

Sources

See also