which he was the father
and the consummate master, that his operas are curiosities but little
known except to musical antiquaries. Yet some of the airs from the
Handel operas are still cherished by singers as among the most beautiful
songs known to the concert-stage.

In 1720 Handel was engaged by a party of noblemen, headed by his Grace
of Chandos, to compose operas for the Royal Academy of Music at the
Haymarket. An attempt had been made to put this institution on a firm
foundation by a subscription of L50,000, and it was opened on May 2d
with a full company of singers engaged by Handel. In the course of eight
years twelve operas were produced in rapid succession: "Floridante,"
December 9, 1721; "Ottone," January 12, 1723; "Flavio" and "Giulio
Cesare," 1723; "Tamerlano," 1724; "Rodelinda," 1725; "Scipione," 1726;
"Alessandro," 1726; "Admeto," 727; "Siroe," 1728; and "Tolommeo," 1728.
They made as great a _furore_ among the musical public of that day as
would an opera from Gounod or Verdi in the present. The principal airs
were sung throughout the land, and published as harpsichord pieces; for
in these halcyon days of our composers the whole atmosphere of the land
was full of the flavor and color of Handel. Many of the melodies in
these now forgotten operas have been worked up by modern composers, and
so have passed into modern music unrecognized. It is a notorious fact
that the celebrated song, "Where the Bee sucks," by Dr. Arne, is taken
from a movement in "Rinaldo." Thus the new life of music is ever growing
rich with the dead leaves of the past. The most celebrated of these
operas was entitled "Otto." It was a work composed of one long string of
exquisite gems, like Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Gounod's "Faust." Dr.
Pepusch, who had never quite forgiven Handel for superseding him as the
best organist in England, remarked, of one of the airs, "That great bear
must have been inspired when he wrote that air." The celebrated Madame
Cuzzoni made her _debut_ in it. On the second night the tickets rose
to four guineas each, and Cuzzoni received two thousand pounds for the
season.

The composer had already begun to be known for his irascible temper.
It is refreshing to learn that operatic singers of the day, however
whimsical and self-willed, were obliged to bend to the imperious genius
of this man. In a spirit of ill-timed revolt Cuzzoni declined to sing
an air. She had already given him trouble by her insolence and frea