We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2020
❧ Handel's Successors
AFTER Handel's death on 14 April 1759 his oratorio seasons were continued at Covent Garden by John Christopher Smith junior and John Stanley. They moved from Covent Garden to Drury Lane in 1770, and Smith retired after the 1774 season. Stanley ran the 1775 season alone but in 1776 he went into partnership with the Bath musician Thomas Linley senior (who was in process of purchasing a share in the Drury Lane Theatre with his son-in-law Richard Brinsley Sheridan), an arrangement that lasted until early 1786, when Stanley retired because of ill health (he died on 19 May) and was replaced by Samuel Arnold. Linley and Arnold moved temporarily to the King's Theatre in 1792, and in 1794 Linley moved back to the rebuilt Drury Lane theatre for a season in partnership with Stephen Storace. After Linley's death on 19 November 1795 the direct tradition deriving from Handel came to an end, though oratorio seasons continued until 1840, when the restrictions on stage productions in the London theatres during Lent were finally lifted. There were also various competing oratorio seasons, put on by, among others, Thomas Arne (DL, 1761, 1762); Thomas and Michael Arne (CG, 1773); Samuel Arnold and Edward Toms (LTH, 1768, 1769; CG, 1770–2; LTH, 1773); J.C. Bach (HT, 1770, 1771); François-Hippolyte Barthélemon (LTH, 1774, 1779); Bach and C.F. Abel (HT, 1775); Arnold alone (CG, 1776, 1777); James Hook (CG, 1778); Michael Arne and Barthélemon (LTH, 1784); Michael Arne alone (LTH, 1785); John Ashley and Samuel Harrison (CG, 1789–92); and Ashley alone (CG, 1793–1805).
For Handel, an important attraction of oratorio must have been the opportunity to run a large-scale musical enterprise free from the aristocratic committees that were always in control of Italian opera companies. Similar motives seem to have impelled William Hayes to develop his own circuit of provincial festivals mostly devoted to Handel's oratorios (Ch. 2), and the musicians who ran the London oratorio seasons in Handel's wake normally organised and promoted them in person, largely independently of the theatre managements.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
