Handel as Orpheus
Subtitle: voice and desire in the chamber cantatas
By: Ellen T. Harris
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 430
Subjects: Handel, George Frideric, -- 1685-1759.; Cantatas -- History and criticism; Homosexuality and music
Description: "Handel wrote over 100 cantatas, compositions for voice and instruments that describe the joy and pain of love. In Handel as Orpheus, the first comprehensive study of the cantatas, Ellen Harris investigates their place in Handel's life as well as their extraordinary beauty.".

"The cantatas were written between 1706 and 1723 - from the time Handel left his home in Germany, through the years he spent in Florence and Rome, and into the early part of his London career. In this period he lived as a guest in aristocratic homes, and composed these chamber works for his patrons and hosts, primarily for private entertainments.

In both Italy and England his patrons moved in circles in which same-sex desire was commonplace - a fact that is not without significance, Harris reveals, for the cantatas exhibit a clear homosexual subtext."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes