The composer

hen Handel wrote , the 33-year-old composer was beginning to forge as well as the operas and . 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 , written for George I, was premiered on the Thames in 1717, the year he became house composer at Cannons, Middlesex.