George Frideric Handel

Naturalised British in 1727 and buried in Westminster Abbey thirty-two years later, George Frideric Handel had reached London by way of Halle, where Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow taught him, the opera pit at Hamburg, and his years in Italy. From 1712 he was the central figure in London's Italian opera, writing Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda and Alcina for the singers of the day. When public taste and the account books turned against that enterprise he built another one, in English and without scenery: Saul, Israel in Egypt, Samson, Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah, first performed in Dublin in 1742 for a charitable subscription. The Water Music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks show what he could do with ceremonial scale and open air. His first opera, Almira, was written in Hamburg, and Italy brought Rodrigo to Florence in 1707 and Agrippina to Venice in 1709; in 1710 he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, the future George I, and settled in London after the success of Rinaldo. Zadok the Priest, composed for the coronation of George II, has been sung at every British coronation since. He began the oratorio Jephtha in 1751 and was almost blind by the time he finished it, and he died in London on 14 April 1759.