George Friderich Handel, composer, courtier, entrepreneur, polemicist, impecunious artist and wealthy bourgeois, was first and foremost a revolutionary figure, the first to envisage opera as a show to entertain a ticket-buying audience. Without him opera, as we understand it today, would not exist. Yet despite his historical influence and the quality of his operatic compositions, the latter were consigned to a long oblivion before being «rediscovered» by musical historians in the mid-20th century. He was known for his tremendous productivity — some forty operas, among many other types of works —, his natural quest to innovate, his significant influence on other great musicians, and his ability to transcend his own time.  Philippe Jaroussky's counter-tenor voice —accompanied by the Freiburger Barockorchester, which for twenty years has been reflecting the timelessness of Handel's output — recreates an entire epoch, during which opera was a form of popular entertainment with the same vitality as pop culture in the 21st century. 

Orchestral passages and arias from Rodrigo, Imeneo, Serse, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Radamisto and Aggripina.