The stage is set for new topics

Whether current research findings, anniversaries or famous personalities - there are many good reasons for annual and special exhibitions at the Handel House. And always an occasion for you to discover something new in the museum.

Handel stayed in Italy from 1706 until early 1710. We know little or nothing about much of this period. However, the months the composer spent in Rome in 1707 and 1708 are unusually well documented. During this period, he composed some of his most beautiful and interesting works – works that Handel himself would return to time and again later in his career.

From the wealth of material that could be displayed and discussed on the subject of ‘Handel in Rome’, the exhibition focuses on three aspects:

•  When Handel travelled to Italy, war was raging there. Although Rome was spared from combat operations, the War of the Spanish Succession shaped life in the city with its fear of war and hope for peace and the fierce conflict between the parties, and thus also shaped music, which in turn was used as a medium of political propaganda – including by Handel's patrons.
• Antiquity was and is omnipresent in Rome. It is reflected in Handel's work. What knowledge did the young man from Halle bring with him, and what interested his contemporaries?
• Handel was a Protestant; the young man came from the heartland of the Reformation to the seat of the Pope's government. In Rome, Handel heard and composed “Catholic” music; and it was here that he first became acquainted with a genre that would later become so important to him: the oratorio. What happened when he immersed himself in the world of a foreign denomination?

The exhibition displays objects from the Handel House collection, as well as some unusual loans. Several children's stations make the exhibition interesting for younger visitors too.