Happy Valentine's Day to Music Education Magic friends and supporters. I wanted to connect classical music to this special day and glad to be able to find something to share, something about  G.F. Handel (18th century), Vincenzo Bellini (19th century) and Bruno Walter (20th century). George Frideric Handel, Baroque German composer famous for oratorio "Messiah" became an English citizen on February 14th 1727. He was 42 years old. Although he composed many operas, later in his life he concentrated in oratorios, cantatas and other chamber music.  Perhaps, of interest to Music Education, Handel, while composing, also introduced musical instruments not common in his day, including viola d'amore (opera Orlando), the lute, trombones (oratorio Saul), cornets (opera Tamerlano), viola da gamba, bell chimes and harp (opera Giulio Cesare), and French horn (instrumental "Water Music"), among others.  

Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer best known for opera Norma, premiered his other opera seria La Straniera (The Foreigner) on February 14, 1829. Bellini's other known operas are La Sonnambula, Beatrice di Tenda and I Puritani.    

Bruno Walter (formerly, Bruno Schlesinger), a famous German-born conductor was naturalized in Austria in 1911, and settled in the US in 1939. He made his conducting debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera, on February 14, 1941, in Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera Fidelio. 

 

Fine Music Till Dawn

Welcome!  Fine Music Till Dawn aims to share insights about classical music mainly from late 1000 (Hildegard of Bingen), Renaissance (Monteverdi), Baroque (Bach, Handel), through the Romantic period. I might include early Modern (Britten, Copland, Bernstein) although I have to warn my readers that this writer is somehow inclined to the Classical period, in particular, Mozart and his contemporaries. Focus will be on the historical events, along with the lives and works of the masters.

Fine Music Till Dawn