Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Handel merely made money off of the English.

Shame!  It's hardly true anyway.  Purcell was a revelation to Handel as
great as any in his musical life.  Without that English influence, he would
hardly have become the fully armed composer he did.

All this is true without even having to appeal to his love of the language,
of London and the English countryside, expressed in numerous masterpieces
setting marvellous (and less marvellous) English texts.

No.  Handel wasn't just here for the money:  indeed he spent considerable
periods of time bankrupt!  He chose to be here.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"