Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/155

HANDEL 808 arrived at Venice during the middle of the carnival, and was taken to a masked ball, and there played the harpsichord, still keeping on his mask. Domenico Scar- latti, the most famous harpsichord player of his age, on hearing him, exclaimed, "Why, it's the devil, or else the Saxon whom everyone is talking about!" In 1709 he returned to Hanover, and was appointed by the Elector George of Brunswick, afterward King George I., of England, his Court Capellmeister. Handel's wanderings next led him to England, where he was treated with so much honor that he showed no great hurry to return to Hanover, and, in fact, he remained in England and coolly ignored his engagement as Capellmeister. But an awkward piece of retribution was at hand. The Elector of Hanover, on the death of Queen Anne, came to England as the new king, and Handel, his delinquent Capellmeister, could hardly expect to receive any share of the royal favor in future. With the help of a friend of his, Baron Kilmanseck, he deter- mined, however, to make an attempt to conciliate the king, and accordingly he wrote twenty-five short concerted pieces of music, and made arrangements for these to be performed by musicians in a boat following the royal barge on the Thames, one day when the king went on an excursion up the river for a picnic. The king recognized the composer at once by his style, and spoke in terms of approbation of the music, and the news was quickly conveyed by his friend to the anxious musician. This is the story of the origin of the famous " Water Music." Soon afterward the king allowed Handel to appear before him to play the harpsi- chord accompaniments to some sonatas executed by Geminiani, a celebrated Ital- ian violinist, and finally peace was made between them, Handel being appointed music-master to the royal children, and receiving an additional pension of ,£200. In 1726 a private Act of Parliament was passed, making George Frederick Han- del a naturalized Englishman. In the year 1720 a number of noblemen formed themselves into a company for the purpose of reviving Italian opera in London, at the Haymarket Theatre, and subscribed a capital of ,£50,000. The king himself subscribed ;£ 1,000, and allowed the society to take the name of the Royal Academy of Music, and at first everything seemed to promise the most brilliant success. Handel was ap- pointed director of the music. Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti, his old acquaint- ances in Berlin, were also attracted by this new operatic venture to London, and their arrival was followed by a competition of a very novel character. The li- bretto of a new opera, "Muzio Scsevola," was divided between the three com- posers. Attilio was to put the first act to music, Bononcini the second, and Handel the third. We need hardly wonder that the victory is said to have rested with the last and youngest of the trio, although at this time the cabals against him, which afterward were to do him such grievous harm, had already commenced. Handel still clung to the operatic speculation ; and when he had to leave the Haymarket Theatre, which was given up to another Italian company with the famous Farinelli, from Lincoln's Inn Fields, undauntedly he changed to the Lin- coln's Inn Fields Theatre, and there commenced again. More operas were pro- duced, with the one unvarying tale of fiasco, and at last, in 1737, having lost the 20