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Opera Synopses
Handel composed an extraordinary 42 operas over 36 years, mostly in Italian and for the London stage. With plots drawn from mythology and ancient hisotry, the action unfolds in recitative (speech-like singing with one note per syllable).
Handel wrote his first operas for Hamburg and performed in three seasons of opera in Italy. His first opera for London, Rinaldo, was premiered at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket in 1711. This was a spectacle on a scale never seenbefore on the London stage and an instant success.
Learn more about Handel's operas below.
