Christopher Webber wrote:

>The rediscovery and rehabilitation of Handel's magnificent music theatre
>is the single most exciting eventin the last thirty years, as far as
>the stuffy old operatic museum is concerned.  Musically as well as
>dramatically, >Handel's operas have proved themselves to be right up
>there with the very greatest - Mozart, Verdi, Janacek, et. al.  - in
>their ability to move and satisfy us musically, as well as revealing
>to us multitudinous aspects of the human condition.

I accept that that is a judgment shared by a lot of people better
qualified to to judge than I.  But it isn't a judgment I feel able
to share.  Handel is one of only two great composers whose music I get
little pleasure from (the other is Scriabin and, so far as I know, that
is the only thing they have in common).  I have seen five Handel productions
in the last five years.  They were all well sung and were performed in
interesting productions.  But they do not speak to me and I do not
understand why that is so.  I sit there in the stalls feeling myself to
be an observer not a participant, listening but uninvolved.  I am all
for extending the repertoire and I am not one of those people who think
opera properly starts with Mozart.  I enjoy Gluck, I am greatly moved
by Monteverdi's operas always, even in barmy productions.  I would like
somebody round here to stage the operas of Haydn and Vivaldi.  But I
guess my problem with Handel is mine not his, though it's quite a comfort
to learn that Berlioz appears to have had a similar problem.

George Marshall
Cheshire UK

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