Handel and the Seven Deadly Sins There seem to be two types of sins —- one which is normally forgivable and the other which will incur God’s wrath and get you condemned to Hell. Outlined by Dante in his Divine Comedy, the more serious ones, known as the Seven Deadly Sins, are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. Of the many examples found in music of the baroque, one has to look no further than the vocal music of George Frideric Handel. The man himself was known to indulge in quite a bit of food and therefore was guilty of the sin of Gluttony. An example of Gluttony can be found in Alexander’s Feast, and, specifically, the bass aria “Bacchus, ever fair and young.” Pride can be found in the opera Semele where the title character experiences an indulgent episode—in herself. Poor Semele! She slipped into a moment of Pride when she sang aria “Myself I shall adore.” Narcissism can be considered a form of Pride… It is all too easy to find an example of Wrath in Handel’s canon of rage arias, but how about anger on the slow boil? The cantata La Lucrezia is a perfect example. In the second aria, Lucrezia sings “May the ground beneath his feet open up, and the air the evil Roman breathes grow foul! Wherever his step may lead him, wherever his eyes may turn, may he meet ghosts, harbingers of ruin.” Greed is a bit more elusive to find, yet it does make an appearance in Handel’s oratorio Solomon. Two harlots come to King Solomon, laying claim to the same infant. The second harlot, the liar, makes her case to Solomon, inspired by Greed. And we know how that story ended for the second harlot. In Ariodante, we find our hero not guilty of Envy but the object of it. In spite of ensuing ruckus and resolution, Ariodante takes a moment to sing the optimistic aria “Dopo notte.” Apart from Gluttony, Handel may have also been personally guilty of another deadly sin—Sloth. He was infamous for taking other composers works, revamping them a little, and then passing them off as his own. Sometimes the so-called revamping was minimal, if at all, which could only have been due to laziness. For example, compare the chorus “Egypt was glad” from Israel in Egypt with the organ canzona #4 by Johan Caspar Kerll. Guilty, we say. Last but not least…is Lust. The bully Polifemo is the guilty party from Handel’s Italian version of the Acis and Galatea story. In his first entrance, his eyes are all ablaze for, Galatea, the object of his affection, even if a little misdirected and futile. https://youtube/watch?v=aXxK7bXQfOM
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 15:23:51 +0000
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