After it was all over, Librettist Giacomo Rossi did not know whether to brag or complain, and so did both. The composer, said Rossi, "scarcely gave me the time to write, and to my great wonder I saw an entire opera put to music by that surprising genius, with the greatest of perfection, in only two weeks." The genius was George Frideric Handel, then 26. The opera was Rinaldo, conceived, composed and staged for London's Haymarket Theater in 1711. Based on an epic about the Crusades by Torquato Tasso, the opera tells the story...
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