When Handel arrived in London as a young twenty-five-year-old wunderkind, he found a city that was hungry for the latest trends from the continent. Audiences in the bustling city had enjoyed a little tasting plate of Italian Opera in the preceding years. Italian singers would occasionally perform in concerts or between the acts of plays, and the great tradition of pasticcio, stringing together popular arias from various composers into a sort of patchwork opera, whetted the appetite. But these tiny morsels wouldn’t satisfy the London crowds, and Handel sprang at the opportunity to write the first full Italian Opera for the city. 

The story of the heroic knight Rinaldo who does battle with the evil sorceress Armida to rescue his beloved Almirena fired the imagination of the young genius, who pulled out every stop to win over his audience. In a feverish period of two weeks, Handel recrafted some of his best tunes from his earlier works (such as Lascia ch’io pianga which first appeared as a Sarabande in his opera Almira) and drew new melodic inspiration from the libretto to create the kind of theatre spectacular that would cement his reputation.

As well as dazzling coloratura fireworks and beguiling melodies, Handel exploits the virtuosity of his orchestra to maximum effect. In addition to the usual compliment of strings and continuo, Handel’s score bristles with colourful solos for wind instruments, exotic percussion and the martial flair of four trumpets and timpani. Eager to dazzle the public with his own virtuosity, Handel even includes three opportunities within Armida’s aria Vo fa Guerra to show off his mastery of the keyboard, through a set of increasingly brilliant and elaborate harpsichord improvisations. 

On top of all this, the London stage provides Handel with an astounding range of special effects, theatrical illusions and a team of master craftsmen who work their own magic to create the fantastical world of Rinaldo. Take Armida’s entrance for example:

A black Cloud descends, all fill’d with dreadful Monsters spitting Fire and Smoke on every side. The Cloud covers Almirena and Armida, and carries ‘em up swiftly into the Air, leaving in their Place, two frightful Furies, who having grinn’d at, and mock’d Rinaldo, sink down, and disappear.

Or later as the heroes ascend the mountain:

The Mountain opens and swallows [the Spirits] up, with Thunder, Lighting, and amazing Noises…They gain the Summit of the Hill and entring the Enchanted Arches, strike the Gate with their Wands; when immediately the Palace, the Spirits, and the whole Mountain vanish away

 Through an intricate system of trapdoors, pulleys, lifts, flies, moving flats and drop sheets, and a few small boys crouched inside the dragons to create the spitting fire, Handel has an astonishing bag of tricks to help him win over his audience. The virtuosity of his music is matched in every way by the virtuosity of the stage machinery.

It’s no wonder then that Rinaldo was a complete triumph. In an age when operas were rarely revived, there were over fifty performances in Handel’s lifetime, far more than any of his other operas. Handel now had the town hooked on the delights of Italian Opera, and Rinaldo marks the first flourish of his remarkable career in London.