A Study On The Arias Of Sopranos Of Handel's Operas In The London Period

George Frideric Handel is a great musician on par with Bach in the Baroque artistic period. It took Handel almost 40 years out of his 74 years' lifetime to have produced 50 operas, 36 out of which debuted in London.The Baroque opera stages were permeated with the mythology, legend and magic of Italian opera seria. During his early years of stay in Italy, Handel had already witnessed the popularity of Italian opera seria among a large audience there and had been much influenced by the Italian opera seria. Many of Handel's operas, including his virgin masterpiece Deidamia 1741,Rinaldo which debuted in London in 1711, and his final masterpiece Deidamia , inherited the tradition of Italian opera seria in terms of scripture, language and music structure. Following his sojourn in London and accession to English nationality, he adapted himself to the artistic colloquial speech of the royal court aristocrats and managed to please the taste of the English audience through his manipulation of the Cartrati' dazzling dramatic rendition and rich florid apparel. With regard to the grandeur and profundity, the theatricality and lyricism of music, the aesthetic value of Handel's operas was unparalleled by that of his contemporaries. The wonderful arias Handel wrote for sopranos, tenors and cartrati stand out in particular for their outstanding techniques in melody treatment, enchanting fluctuation of vocal lines, rigorous layout, diverse styles, and the harmonious depiction of the orchestra as well as for their great humanistic concern and potential for arousing deep affection.A handful of Handel's arias, along with many of his operas, had been neglected and gradually forgotten due very much to the decline of Italian opera seria and the vying impact from the Englishman J.C. Pepps' the Beggar's Opera with its unique ethnic style, in a time when more audience arose from among the average civilians as well as the then newly emerging bourgeois. However, with the evolution of time and history, the artistic value of Handel's operas and arias has been rediscovered and highly attended by both music critics and the average audience ever since the 1930s.The present thesis writing chooses from among Handel's operas which debuted in London such as Rinaldo, Rodelinda, Giulio Cesara in Egitto and Serse some of his arias of sopranos most representative of his artistic features and elaborates on the differences between Handel's operas and traditional Italian operas. The researcher analyzes and discusses Handel's artistic conduction of opera singing from the aspects of style types and such creation techniques as vocal lines, breath, clauses, rhythm, volume, language and expression. Finally, the thesis also objectively evaluates the implications of Handel's arias of sopranos on the future practice of Bel Canto and the teaching of vocal music.