Opera Career
At the beginning of the 18th Century, England possessed a strong interest in Italian Opera. Handel catered to the needs of the largely aristocratic audience with a series of successful operas over the ensuing decades, though his audiences began to waver.
The genre of Italian Opera was somewhat limiting. The prevalence of the da capo aria (one that repeats its first section at the end) made for slow drama, to say nothing of overly complex plots and improbable endings. Meanwhile the absence of a choral component prohibited one of Handel’s greatest talents. Other troubles, such as hiring the most famous singers, and paying for elaborate costumes and sets, made it a difficult business.
Still, Handel invested himself deeply in these works. They contain some wonderful music, and it is no surprise that the composer reused much of this material later when writing some of his greatest oratorios. He loved the Opera to the end, even when it lost him money, and even after his oratorios had started achieving success.
During these decades, he supplemented (and sometimes supported) his opera career with many of his instrumental and ceremonial pieces. See the Works section for a chronology of the most notable ones.
But as time wore on opera audiences began to decrease and Handel fell on hard times. Battling financial losses and unstable health, his career in England might have ended had his talent been less versatile. Fortunately, his shift to dramatic oratorios gave him another chance to reclaim the hearts of his audience, and his status as the foremost composer of his day. His final opera, Deidamia, was produced in 1741 when he was 56.