The composer

When Handel wrote Acis and Galatea, the 33-year-old composer was beginning to forge a significant reputation in England. Born in Halle, Germany, in 1685, he moved to Italy in his early 20s, where he wrote Dixit Dominus as well as the operas Rodrigo and Agrippina. Appointed Kapellmeister to George, Elector of Hanover – the future George I of Great Britain and Ireland – in 1710, Handel travelled to England where, two years later, he decided to settle. His Water Music, written for George I, was premiered on the Thames in 1717, the year he became house composer at Cannons, Middlesex.