Essays on Handel and Italian Opera

In this valuable collection of essays, published to coincide with the tercentenary of Handel's birth and available here for the first time in English, Reinhard Strohm examines the relationship between Handel's great operas and the earlier European Baroque tradition, focusing on the Italian school, to which they are so crucially indebted. Handel's immediate heritage included the figures of Scarlatti, Gasparini and Vivaldi; this book establishes that context, concentrating on contemporary operatic practice, and proceeds to analyse three of Handel's best-known works. It shows how they elaborate and develop the style and method of the Italian operatic theatre, embracing previous traditions and synthesising them with a new and exciting accentuation.Strohm, Reinhard is the author of 'Essays on Handel and Italian Opera', published 1985 under ISBN 9780521264280 and ISBN 0521264286.