Think of the graceful melody known as Handel’s Largo, from the composer’s 1738 opera Serse (Xerxes). This is music calculated to melt the heart, with its stately descending phrase — “Ombra mai fu” — ...
MOST of us associate the air commonly known as “Handel’s Largo” with heavy-footed organists, condescending conductors, loggy contraltos, soppy boy sopranos, intermission at the movies, and ...
In the first act of Semele, George Frideric Handel’s 1743 opera in English, Semele leaves her betrothed at the altar for Juno’s husband, Jupiter, and Semele’s sister hooks up with the abandoned fiancé ...
As the composer of Messiah, the most famous oratorio ever written, George Frideric Handel is a giant of the classical music world. But he also wrote operas. In the early 1700s, London was crazy for ...