Handel in Italy

Italy
Arrival in Florence
Stay in Rome
Ruspoli
Florence
Venice
Naples
Rome and Florence
Agrippina
End of Apprenticeship
Metastasio


Italy
Handel arrived in Italy no later than the fall of 1706, and remained there until the spring of 1710. He stayed mainly in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice.

Contemporary sources throw little light on Handel’s personal circumstances during this journey and only the more recent research has pointed to the unfavourable and presumably dangerous concomitants, which arose for Handel’s sojourn in Italy from the War of the Spanish Succession. Large parts of Europe, and especially the Italian states, had to suffer from the hostilities connected with it. The simplest facts about Handel’s life between 1706 and 1710 still remain to be adequately elucidated, and details of Handel’s life in Italy have been the subject of much speculation.


Arrival in Florence
It is however certain that he left Hamburg with an invitation in his pocket which took him first of all to Florence. He probably visited this city regularly in autumn during the next few years.


Stay in Rome
In December 1706 he was in Rome. It is very probable that a note in a diary (Rome, 14. January 1707) also refers him: “ A Saxon has arrived in our city, an outstanding harpsichordist and composer, who to the astonishment of all demonstrated his virtuosity in organ playing at the Church of St. John Lateran.” – Relating to this we should know that Handel must have had an invitation to play on the organ in this church. -  During his stay in Rome Handel was a frequent visitor at the palaces of the Cardinals Benedetto Pamphili, Pietro Ottoboni and Carlo Colonna - members and intellectual leaders of the Roman Arcadia, a poetic circle founded at the end of the 17th century “ to combat bad taste.”


Ruspoli
From December 1706 to October 1707 Handel lived as an honoured guest in one of the palacees of Prince Francesco Ruspoli. He also spent some time there in 1708 and 1709. Mainwaring reported: “… he had a palazzo at comand, and was provided with table, coach, and all other accommodations”. [p. 65] It was for this prince that he composed among other things a large number of Italian cantatas, which were mainly performed during “conversazioni” in the Palazzo Bonelli.


Florence
In October or November 1707 Handel went to Florence. It was here that his first Italian opera Vincer se stesso e la maggior vittoria (later entitled Rodrigo) HWV 5 was performed. It is probable that he had already completed this opera before.


Venice
After the production in Florence of Rodrigo the fêted young composer spent the winter of 1707/8 in Venice. There he made further interesting acquaintances, for example with Domenico Scarlatti and Vincenzo Grimani, owner of the theatre San Giovanni Crisostomo. The latter was to write for him the libretto for the opera Agrippina.


Naples
After a further stopover in Rome Handel travelled in May to Naples, where he stayed in the palace of Duke Alvito until the end of July. It was there that he completed the serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo HWV 72.


Rome and Florence
Presumably he spent the next winter, 1708/9 in Rome, where he had the opportunity of getting to know Agostino Steffani - if he had not already done so, possibly as early as 1703 in Hanover.


Agrippina
After a stay in Florence Handel came to Venice towards the end of 1709. There his opera Agrippina was produced at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo and performed 27 times in the same season. This astounding success spread his reputation all over Europe and it was this more than anything else that enabled him later to establish himself so quickly in London.


End of Apprenticeship
Handel probably left Italy in March 1710 and travelled to Hanover and Düsseldorf. On this journey (via Innsbruck) he made a stop in Halle to visit his mother.


Metastasio
Twenty years later - from 1729 - a certain Pietro Trapassi, better known as Metastasio, took up the laurels of poet to the imperial court in succession to Apostolo Zeno. With his numerous opera libretti he refashioned the Neapolitan type of opera with his carefully structured texts and became the leading opera librettist of the 18th century, and the one whose libretti were most often set to music. It was on texts by him that Handel later wrote the operas Siroe HWV 24, Poro HWV 28 (Metastasio’s title was Alessandro nell’ Indie) and Ezio HWV 29.