Handel's Associates
Handel returned to London for good in 1712, only two years before the accession of George I (formerly the Elector of Hanover and Handel's employer) to the English throne. It seems likely that his arrival was as a cultural trailblazer for the new House of Hanover, and the rest of his years were no less at the forefront of London society.
Before moving into Brook Street, it is thought that Handel may have been a guest of his patron Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington. It is known that 1717-8, he worked for James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon (subsequently Duke of Chandos) composing works for private performance, including Acis and Galatea and Esther. In 1717, he composed Water Music for the new King and continued to compose public music including Zadok the Priest as part of the coronation anthems for George II and Queen Caroline in 1727 and Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749.
Until the 1730s, Handel also devoted himself to Italian opera. Relationships between him and his highly paid Italian sopranos were stormy. Despite a threatened defenestration of the newly arrived Francesca Cuzzoni in 1722/3, she continued as his prima donna until the arrival of another celebrated soprano, Faustina Bordoni, in May 1726. Passions ran high between the warring sopranos, inspiring satirical leaflets after a performance of Handel's Admeto (31 January 1727) and leading them to blows on stage during Bononcini's Astianatte in June that year.
As Italian opera faded from public taste, with the encouragement of the librettist Charles Jennens, Handel developed his English oratorio. Amongst his English singers, the musicologist Charles Burney recalled that Handel "was very fond of Mrs Cibber [Susanna Cibber (1714-66)], whose voice and manners had softened his severity for her want of musical knowledge." On 13 April 1742, she sang in the first performance of Messiah, prompting the Rev Patrick Delaney (later the husband of Mrs Pendarves, Handel's Brook Street neighbour) to cry out: "Woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven!"
Amongst his closest associates, Handel counted John Christopher Smith and his son of the same name. Smith the elder, also an émigré from Germany, was Handel's principal copyist. The younger was the composer's pupil during the 1720s and 1730s and became his amanuensis in the 1750s when Handel's eyesight had deteriorated too far to write. On his death, it was the elder Smith who inherited Handel's autograph scores.