Program Notes from Handel's Muse, The Forces of Virtue Concert of May 6, 2003:
On the Many Muses of Handel by Alexander Bonus

When we consider Handel's muse, or the origins of his creative inspiration, foremost recognition should be given to Reinhard Keiser, for it is Keiser's music that can be heard in one form or another throughout Handel's entire creative output. We must realize the extent to which this seasoned opera composer influenced Handel: Keiser's music is found in essentially every Handel opera from his first until his last. Yet how many of us have ever heard the music, no less the name, of Reinhard Keiser?

Reinhard Keiser first resided in Hamburg from 1696-1718, where he was considered the greatest of German opera composers. By the time Handel arrived in Hamburg in 1703 at age 18, and employed as a Hamburg Opera section string player, Keiser had already composed 24 operas, all of them popular and musically successful. By the end of Keiser's career, approximately 100 operas were in his name. Sixty-six of these operas survive to this day. Keiser followed his fellow countrymen Conradi and Kusser by favoring not the Italian opera techniques in Venice, but the French tragédie lyric genre of the famed (transplanted Italian) Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687). This band of turn-of-the-century German composers, who utilized French dance suites, flowing and lyrical recitatives, non-formalized arias, and grand choruses, were known as Les Lullistes. Their vast creative output represents one of music's undiscovered countries for opera-loving audiences of today.

One opera in this tradition is Reinhard Keiser's Claudius (1703), a particularly important example since it was the first to fuse both styles and languages. Claudius consisted of a bilingual libretto with both German and Italian vocal sections to suit the tastes of an international, cosmopolitan audience. Handel was quick to pick up this trend when he composed his earliest opera Almira (1705), based on the same 1704 libretto of Keiser's Almira. By the time of Agrippina though, Handel reverted to composing in just one language. Hamburg operas continued to use Italian text for particularly flashy arias and German text for recitatives, duets, and lied based vocal sections. During the later tenure of Telemann, choruses were often set to French. But through Claudius and the invention of Keiser, Hamburg opera productions became bonafide multi-cultural events.

On today's program, we offer for the first time in North America the overture and dance suite to Claudius, the opera considered by scholars to be one of the most important sources for Handel's inspiration. Handel's Agrippina, Rinaldo, Teseo, Floridante, Berenice, Deidamia, Alceste, along with numerous oratorios contain quotes of the brief but musically charged "Overture" from Keiser's Claudius.

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