Fun Facts

Fun Fact
In the Baroque era, it was not uncommon for composers to incorporate arias they had already written into new works. Agrippina’s aria “Bel piacere” first appeared in Handel's 1707 oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno; two years after Agrippina’s premiere, the same music appeared in his opera Rinaldo (1711).

Fun Fact
Singers also requested that old arias be slotted into new operas—especially if the aria in question was particularly suited to the singer’s voice or if it was an exceptional crowd-pleaser. Since singers “carried” these arias with them from opera to opera, the arias came to be known as “suitcase arias.”

Fun Fact
When Claudio Monteverdi’s L'Incoronazione di Poppea premiered in Venice in 1643, it was performed in a theater built by none other than Vincenzo Grimani’s father.

Fun Fact
Operas are famous for their deadly drama and surprising comedy, but what happens backstage can be just as wild as anything that happens on the stage itself. On December 5, 1704, Handel was playing the harpsichord for Cleopatra, a new opera by the composer and theorist Johann Mattheson. Mattheson himself was onstage, singing the role of Cleopatra’s lover, Antony; when he finished singing, he approached the musicians and asked to take over Handel’s position at the harpsichord. Handel refused. This seemingly minor altercation soon escalated into a duel with swords. Mattheson landed a blow, but Handel serendipitously survived—because Mattheson’s sword broke when it hit the button of Handel’s coat.

Fun Fact
On October 11, 1727, King George II and Queen Caroline of England were crowned at Westminster Abbey. Handel provided four newly composed choral works for the occasion. One of these, Zadok the Priest, has been performed at every English coronation ever since.

Fun Fact
In 1723, Handel moved into a new apartment in London; for the rest of his life, he would call 25 Brook Street home. Over two and a half centuries later, the upper two floors of the adjoining house (at 23 Brook Street) were rented by another legendary musician: Jimi Hendrix!

Fun Fact
The emperor Nero has gone down in history as one of the cruelest, most capricious leaders the Western world has ever seen, and numerous stories attest to his bizarre and ruthless leadership. One of the most famous stories involves his behavior during the Rome fire of 64 ce, during which he was said to have been seen on a hill nearby “fiddling while Rome burned.” He wasn’t, however, playing the violin, an instrument that wouldn’t be invented until the following millennium. Instead, “fiddling” here means “engaging in idle activities”: Nero was rumored to have been reading an epic poem he had written about the conflagration of the ancient city of Troy as he watched his own capital city go up in flames.