Handel's biography indicates that he was a man of great inner strength and conviction. As Bernard Shaw said about him: "You can despise anyone and anything, but you are powerless to contradict Handel." According to the playwright, even hardened atheists were speechless at the sound of his music.
Childhood and early years
Georg Friedrich Handel was born on February 23, 1685, his parents lived in Halle. The father of the future composer was a barber-surgeon, whose wife grew up in the family of a priest. The child began to be interested in music very early, but in early childhood, not much attention was paid to his hobbies. Parents believed that this was just children's play.
Initially, the boy was sent to a classical school, where the future composer was able to perceive some musical concepts from his mentor Pretorius. A true connoisseur of music, he himself composed operas for the school. Among the first teachers of Handel were organist Christian Ritter, who gave the boy lessons in playing the clavichord, and the court bandmaster David Poole, who often visited the house.
Young Handel's talent was appreciated after a chance meeting with Duke Johann Adolf, and the boy's fate immediately began to change dramatically. A big fan of musical art, having heard a wonderful improvisation, persuaded Handel's father to give his son an appropriate education. As a result, Georg became one of the pupils of the organist and composer Friedrich Zachau, who enjoyed great fame in Halle. For three years he studied music composing, and also mastered the skills of free playing on several instruments - he mastered the violin, oboe and harpsichord.
The beginning of the composer's career
In 1702, Handel entered the University of Gaul, and soon received an appointment as organist at the Gallic Calvinist Cathedral. Thanks to this, the young man, whose father had died by that time, was able to earn a living and found a roof over his head. At the same time, Handel taught theory and singing at a Protestant gymnasium.
A year later, the young composer decides to move to Hamburg, where the only opera house in Germany was then located (the city was even called "German Venice"). A role model for Handel then became the head of the theater orchestra Reinhard Kaiser. Handel, who joined the collective as a violinist and harpsichordist, shared the opinion that it was preferable to use the Italian language in operas. In Hamburg, Handel creates his first works - the operas "Almira", "Nero", "Daphne" and "Florindo".
In 1706, Georg Handel came to Italy at the invitation of the Grand Prince of Tuscany Ferdinando de Medici. After spending about three years in the country, he wrote the famous "Dixit Dominus", which was based on the words of Psalm 110, as well as the oratorios "La resurrezione" and "Il trionfo del tempo". The composer becomes popular in Italy, the audience perceives his operas "Rodrigo" and "Agrippina" very warmly.
Handel in England
The composer will spend the period from 1710 until the end of his life in London, where he will go as conductor to Prince George (later he will become King of Great Britain and Ireland).
Every year, creating several operas for the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Theater, the Covent Garden Theater, the composer was forced to change jobs - the imagination of the great musical figure was cramped in the then existing coherent structure of the seria opera. In addition, Handel constantly had to enter into disagreements with the nobles. As a result, he gradually switched to writing oratorios.
In the spring of 1737, Handel suffered a stroke, due to which his right arm was partially paralyzed, and later began to notice mental confusion. But the composer managed to recover within a year, but he no longer created an opera.
Nine years before his death, Handel was completely blind by the will of a fatal accident and was forced to spend those years in darkness. On April 7, 1759, the composer listened to a concert during which the oratorio "Messiah" created by him was performed, and this was the last appearance of the master, whose name was famous throughout Europe. A week later, on April 14, Georg Friedrich Handel left this world. According to his last will, the funeral took place at Westminster Abbey. The funeral ceremony was organized with pomp, like that of the most important statesmen in England.
