George Frideric Handel is a great composer of the Enlightenment, who opened up new perspectives in the development of the opera and oratorio genres and anticipated many musical ideas of the following centuries - the operatic drama of Christoph Willibald Gluck, the civil pathos of Ludwig van Beethoven, the psychological depth of romanticism.

Handel's creative activity was longstanding and fruitful. He created a huge number of musical works of various genres. Opera and its varieties (seria, pastoral), choral music - secular and religious, numerous oratorios, chamber vocal music and, collections of instrumental pieces: for harpsichord, organ, orchestra are among them.

Handel devoted over thirty years of his life to the operatic genre. It was always in the center of the composer’s interests and attracted him more than all other musical genres. A large-scale figure, Handel perfectly understood the power of the opera as a dramatic musical and theatrical genre. Forty operas - such is the creative result of his work in this area.

To commemorate the composer’s jubilee We posted a musical selection on our website.

Handel's biography is in the section Authors.