research, summarized by Roberts, has disclosed much more borrowing than
had been known in the years before the stroke. Other theories are disposed of,
and Roberts puts forth his own—bold and cogent: Handel “had a basic lack of
facility in inventing original ideas.” So he gathered ideas as he heard them
(even writing some fragments into his notebook) and put them to use. But “in
his best music he always transformed his models radically and built from them
structures that only he could have conceived.”Roberts has made another important contribution to this topic:
- Roberts, John H. “Keiser and Handel at the Hamburg Opera.” Händel-
Jahrbuch36 (1990): 63–88.
Reinhard Keiser directed the Theater am Gänsemarkt from 1703 to 1707,
while a teenaged Handel played violin in the orchestra. Personal relationships
between the two men—marked by Keiser’s envy—are taken up. It was in Ham-
burg that Handel began his borrowings from Keiser’s music.
See also #947 and #977.
Individual Works
Alcina
ASO130 (1990).
- Dean, Winton. “The Making of Alcina.” In “Con che soavità” (#2461), 312–319.
Genesis, sources, and useful commentary on the most successful of Handel’s
later operas; it had 18 performances during the period 1735–1737.
Alessandro
- King, Richard Glenn. “The Composition and Reception of Handel’s Alessan-
dro(1726).” Ph.D. diss., Stanford U., 1992. xv, 236p.
Almira
- Fenton, Robin F. C. “Almira(Hamburg, 1705): The Birth of G. F. Handel’s
Genius for Characterization.” Handel-Jahrbuch33 (1987): 109–123.
Characterization results from “differentiation in function and musical realisa-
tion between recitative and aria.” Responsibility for it shifted from the libret-
tist to the composer by the end of the 17th century. Almirademonstrates
Handel’s skill in this area, and detailed analyses are offered to show how he
did it. Fenton tends toward the fanciful, finding such things as “a welling of
desire which is itself suggested in the rising melodic line and the modulation.”
With illegible musical examples.
Amadigi
- Dean, Winton. “The Musical Sources for Handel’s Teseoand Amadigi.” In
Slavonic and Western Music: Essays for Gerald Abraham,ed. Malcolm Ham-
rick Brown, 63–80 (New York: Oxford U.P., 1985; ISBN 0-8357-1594-9;
ML55 .A18).
192 Opera