Having already lost a lot of money earlier in the season, Handel now realized the folly of his gamble, and announced in London’s Daily Advertiser that he was closing his ambitious season early. He eloquently expressed the profound sorrow this failure* had given him in his announcement: “As I perceived, that joining good Sense and significant Words to Musick was the best Method of recommending this to an English Audience; I have directed my Studies that way, and endeavour’d to show, that the English language, which is so expressive of the sublimest Sentiments, [italics added] is the best adapted … to the full and solemn Kind of Musick. I have the Mortification now to find that my Labours to please are become ineffectual.” (program notes, Carnegie Hall)

*The premiere of his oratorio Hercules, in January 1745.

— posted by Roger W. Smith

    March 2026