Biography

George Frideric Handel 1685-1759

Date	Event
1685	Born 23 February, Halle, Germany.
1704	Composes Almira, his first opera, which is performed at Hamburg.
1706	Handel leaves Hamburg and travels to Rome, Florence, Naples and Venice, where he meets Domenico and Alessandro Scarlatti, Corelli, and many other musicians. Produces operas, cantatas, church music and oratorios.
1710	Obtains permission from the Elector of Hanover, for whom he had recently been appointed Kapellmeister, to go to London to produce the opera Rinaldo. Settles in London the following year, receiving a royal pension from Queen Anne of £200 a year. Following the Queen's death in 1714, finds himself working for his old master, the Elector of Hanover - now King George I, for whom he composes the Water Music in 1717.
1717/8	Joins the household of the Earl of Carnarvon (later Duke of Chandos), where he writes the 11 Chandos Anthems, Acis and Galatea, and Esther, the first English oratorio. It is in London where some of his best-known operas are composed and first performed - for example, Radamisto, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda, Serse, Ariodante and Alcina, as well as instrumental and orchestral music, and choral music for the Chapel Royal.
1723	Aged 38, takes a lease on a newly built house, now 25 Brook Street, and moves in. He remains here, unmarried, until his death in 1759.
1727	Becomes a British citizen in February. Goes on to write four Anthems for the coronation of King George II (11 October 1727), including Zadok the Priest, which has been sung at every British coronation since.
1732	23 February (Handel's 47th Birthday): the oratorio Esther performed at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand. Encouraged to compose new oratorios and odes (including Alexander's Feast, Saul and Israel in Egypt) which he performs during the opera seasons.
1741	Composes Messiah between the 22 August and the 12 September. Premiered in Dublin on 13 April 1742.
1740s	During the 1740s Handel continues to compose oratorios and musical dramas, usually performing them each Lent at Covent Garden. They include Samson, Semele, Belshazzar, Hercules, Judas Maccabaeus, Solomon and Theodora.
1749	Composes the Music for the Royal Fireworks in celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. It is rehearsed in Handel's house in Brook Street on 17 April and in public in Vauxhall Gardens on 21 April. Performed with a firework display in Green Park on 27 April.
1750	9 May elected governor of the Foundling Hospital.
1751	While composing Jephtha, records that he is unable to continue due the loss of sight in his left eye (13 February). He recovers, but it is reported on 17 August 1752 that he has lost his sight due to a stroke. Aided by his amanuensis JC Smith, continues composing and revising music.
1759	Dies at 25 Brook Street on 14 April. Buried at Westminster Abbey on 20 April.