Well, well,
I must admit that I expected Händel one of the last composers to be interested
in Alexander the Great! His
interpretation of history is apparently reflected by his own time-frame, making
Thais Alexander’s mistress.
The piece is
set at Persepolis,
where Alexander organizes a banquet
that is being enhanced by songs and lyre-playing by his court-musician Timotheus, a famous aulos (double-flute) player. After taking Alexander through different moods, the music finally leads to the
burning of the Palace of Persepolis to revenge his soldiers who died in
the conquest of Persia.
The work was
composed by Händel in January 1736 and premiered at Covent
Garden a month later. It was a great success and eventually led
Händel to writing English choral works instead of the Italian operas as he had
done till then.
I found this highly praised performance of the entire work on YouTube.
I’m
convinced that even in his wildest dreams Alexander
would never have expected to hear his beloved lyre occupying such a prominent
place in a composition written two centuries after his death!
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