When Handel arrived in 1710, England was a country in political and social turmoil, facing the possibility of another civil war. It was the first country in Europe to have open, uncensored debate between political parties. The royal court was no longer the center of social life. Instead there were clubs, coffee-houses and theatres. The beautiful people were no longer just the nobility but included doctors, artists, musicians, bankers, and others. Opera became the leading performing arts genre, and Handel was its leading composer. In contrast to Europe, there was no strict separation of classes in theatres. An exception was the upper level which was still for the lower classes. The presence of the king at a performance was essential to the success of an opera company. George I attended regularly, subscribed a substantial amount, and gave gifts to artists.
Multiple theatres had been abolished by the Puritans, and when Charles II returned in 1660, he granted patents for only two. They were dependent on ticket sales for income. When Handel arrived they were the Drury Lane (1674) and Queen's, Haymarket, (1705). In 1714 they were joined by the King's Theatre, associated mostly with Italian opera. Covent Garden opened in 1732.
From the time of the founding of the Royal Academy of Music in 1719, Handel had been the "Master of Musick" for the only company allowed to produce Italian opera in England. He was given a warrant to travel abroad in search of singers, especially the castrato Senesino who:
...had a powerful, clear, equal and sweet contralto voice, with a perfect intonation and an excellent shake [trill]. His manner of singing was masterly and his elocution unrivalled....He sang allegros with great fire, and marked rapid divisions, from the chest, in an articulate and pleasing manner. His countenance was well adapted to the stage, and his action was natural and noble. To these qualities he joined a majestic figure; but his aspect and deportment were more suited to the part of a hero than of a lover.
In 1726 competition arose. John Gay's The Beggars Opera (1728), which parodied opera seria, was extremely popular. Not only was it was contemporary, but it was in English, making it more accessible to ordinary people. By 1729 Handel's company was in trouble. He regrouped, but his success was limited.
Frederick, Prince of Wales, disliked Handel because he was so popular with his parents and sisters. He and a group of nobles formed the "Opera for the Nobility" at the King's Theatre. He took all the best singers, including the famous castrati, Farinelli and Senesino. This competition added to Handel's difficulties. The King and Queen continued their support but he soon faced bankruptcy.
He became associated with the new Covent Garden Theatre and, while waiting for it to be built, started to compose Ariodante. This theatre, which was equipped with the latest equipment, opened in November 1734 with Il pastor fido. In January, the new work, Ariodante, was produced. While it was well received, the competition hurt it. Ironically Ariodante was one of the pieces played during the festivities for the wedding of Handel's chief competitor, the Prince of Wales.
Spectacular scenery was achieved by a set of movable wings on either side of the stage, with flying borders and backdrops to complete the picture. Curtains did not fall at the end of each act until the middle of the eighteenth century; scene changes were made in full view of the audience. Lighting was much more variable than we would expect. House lights and stage lights could be raised out of sight. Other lights could be dipped or rotated to hide their beams. Footlights could be raised or lowered.
There was no stage director as such. That function was often performed by the librettist who provided diagrams showing where everyone should stand. Not much real direction was necessary. Stage actions were stylized, consisting mostly of arm and facial movements. Big arias were delivered by singers standing at the front of the stage and addressing the audience. Some operas, including Ariodante used extensive dancing. Musical rehearsals frequently took place in the composer's home with visitors attending. Conductors did not exist. First performances were usually led by the composers, later ones by the player at the keyboard.
We are accustomed to seeing women play the part of young men, the so-called trouser roles. In Handel's time, even less attention was paid to matching the sex of the role and that of the singer. In England there was no ban on women singers nor an onus associated with their appearing on stage. In the original production of Ariodante, the women's roles of Ginevra and Dalinda were sung by women. Ariodante was sung by a castrato mezzo. Polinesso, the Duke of Albany, was sung by a woman. For one new opera, Handel requested a woman mezzo and a male soprano. This did not bother audiences at all. They demanded singers who could astound and were enamored of high voices, expecting them for all important roles. Only the minor men's roles were sung by men (tenors and basses). Yet, Handel sometimes broke the rules. For some of his operas, Tamerlano for example, he went contrary to custom and assigned important roles to tenors. He also did something which would have been considered sacrilegious earlier. When the action demanded it, he broke off some arias before they were finished. And horror!, he even wrote out the repeat of da capo arias rather than leaving the ornamentation to the singers. He also experimented with the da capo form itself, sometimes using grand da capo: A1 A2 B A1 A2. He sometimes even used an orchestral accompaniment for the recitatives.
Most of the singers in Italian opera in England were Italians, both men and women. It was acknowledged that Italian singers were better trained and more talented; audiences thought the English howled. Altogether, there were about 320 Italian instrumentalists, composers, librettists, singers, dancers and scene designers dominating musical life in Handel's London. The only English musicians who had much of a chance in London opera had played in Italy. However, the imported Italian singers were sometimes suspected of Papist leaning. The son and grandson of the last Roman Catholic King, the deposed James II, were still alive. The people feared Catholic plots. The grandson, Charles, the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie), had many adherents in Britain, especially among the Scots. There was a serious proposal to add an Act of Parliament which would force foreign entertainers to "adjure the Devil, the Pope, and the Pretender, before they appear in Publick". (Prince Charles was defeated at the bloody battle of Culloden in 1746. Although he lived another forty-two years, his threat to the throne was over.)
English opera audiences were much more sedate than those of Italy, but they were still free to arrive late and to talk and move around during performances, stopping only for the big arias. There were no really new stories — libretti were used over and over — so they did not have to listen to the recitatives to follow the plot. After all, they were in a foreign language which few understood. Handel's audiences had bilingual librettos, often with commentary, which could be followed during the performance. (Lights could not be dimmed as they are today.) Some contained a summary of the story "for those who cannot understand it after having heard and read the same." While some wrote operas in English, Handel refused to do so and his operas were always performed in Italian. As Joseph Addison (1672-1719), an advocate of opera in original language, said: "Where the sense was rightly translated, the necessary transposition of words, which were drawn out of the phrase of one tongue into that of another, made the music appear very absurd in one tongue that was very natural in the other".