Incidental Music for “The Alchemist”

William Capon, Watercolour of The Queen’s Theatre. Haymarket

This coming term we will be playing the overture and two further movements of Handel’s music for the play “The Alchemist”. It is listed as “The Alchemist” in the catalogue of his works, and yet it was not Handel who named it so. The origin of the title goes back to the English playwright and poet Ben Jonson (1572-1637), who has been regarded as the second most important English dramatist after Shakespeare. To mark the 100th anniversary of Jonson’s play, “The Alchemist”, a revival was planned which opened at the Queen’s Theatre in London on 14th January 1710. For this production an anonymous composer made an arrangement of music from Handel’s first Italian opera “Rodrigo”, with the overture introducing the play, and the other movements being used between the acts. The incidental music to the play was then published in full a few months later, but it seems unlikely that Handel received payment for either the performance or publication of his music.

Two years later in 1712, Handel moved to live in London where he enjoyed Royal patronage and quickly became hugely successful. Many famous and well-loved works including “The Water Music”, “Music for the Royal Fireworks” and “The Messiah” were to follow.