Biography of George Frideric Handel

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George Frideric Handel George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a baroque era composer, with an impressive repertoire of compositions. Handel didn’t grow up in a music rich environment, but in fact, he was forbidden by his father to touch any musical instrument, but found time when everyone else was asleep to play a clavichord he had smuggled to an upstairs room in the house. He grew up in Halle, Germany and at the age of 18, he traveled to Hamburg, and took a job as a violinist in the Hamburg Opera House. He supported himself by giving private lessons, and eventually published his first opera, Almira. That was in 1703. By the end of 1710 he had completed an Italian tour that included visits to Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice. He had also moved into and settled in Britain, and wrote Operas for the Queen’s Theatre. It was later renamed the King's Theatre in 1714 after the Elector of Hanover took the British throne, but he was still employed by them. Handel became the director the Royal Academy of Music in 1719. This company was designed to introduce Italian ...

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