Handel’s father was against him playing music. Handel would sneak in the attic to play his Harpsichord without his father’s acknowledgement. His father died when Handel was 12 years of age, after that Handel played music religiously.
He moved to Hamburg in 1703 and played in the opera orchestra under Reinhard Keiser (1674 – 1739), and his first opera was produced there in 1705
He settled in England in 1712.
Handel was appointed musical director of the new Royal Academy of Music, an opera house that thrived until the public taste shifted away from Italian opera
Show diagram on board of the non staged event!
During his last decade he gave regular performances of Messiah, usually with about 16 singers and an orchestra of about 40, in aid of the Foundling Hospital.