List of operas by George Frideric Handel
's operas comprise 42 musical dramas that were written between 1705 and 1741 in various genres. Though his large scale English language works written for the theatre are technically oratorios and not operas, several of them, such as Semele, have become an important part of the opera repertoire. Other English language oratorios which are sometimes fully staged as operas include Saul, Samson, Hercules, Belshazzar, Theodora and Jephtha.
Parnasso in festa, a festa teatrale composed by Handel to an Italian text and performed in London to celebrate the royal wedding of Anne, Princess Royal and Prince William of Orange in 1734, has many characteristics of an opera.
List of works
| HWV | Title | Libretto | Première date | Première place, theatre | Modern revival | Notes |
| 1 | Almira | Friedrich Christian Feustking, after Giulio Pancieri | 8 January 1705 | Hamburg, Oper am Gänsemarkt | 4 June 1994, Handel Festival, Bad Lauchstädt | Some music lost; announced as a Singspiel but has no spoken dialogue |
| 2 | Nero | Friedrich Christian Feustking | 25 February 1705 | Hamburg, Oper am Gänsemarkt | Music lost | |
| 3 | Florindo | Hinrich Hinsch | January 1708 | Hamburg, Oper am Gänsemarkt | Almost all of the music is lost | |
| 4 | Daphne | Hinrich Hinsch | January 1708 | Hamburg, Oper am Gänsemarkt | A sequel to Florindo, intended to be performed on the day after it. Almost all of the music is lost | |
| 5 | Rodrigo | After Francesco Silvani's II duello d'Amore e di Vendetta | c. November 1707 | Florence, Teatro di via del Cocomero | 1984, Innsbruck | Some music is lost |
| 6 | Agrippina | Vincenzo Grimani | 26 December 1709, early 1710 | Venice, Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo | 1943, Halle | |
| 7a/b | Rinaldo | Giacomo Rossi/Aaron Hill, after Tasso, La Gerusalemme liberata | 24 February 1711 | London, Queen's Theatre | June 1954, Handel Festival, Halle | HWV 7b is the 1731 revision; the libretto of a revision of 1717 also exists |
| 8a/b/c | Il pastor fido | Giacomo Rossi, after Giovanni Battista Guarini , | 22 November 1712 | London, Queen's Theatre | 20 June 1948, Handel Festival Göttingen ; 14 September 1971, Abingdon, | HWV 8c designates the version of May 1734 and its November revival. The prologue Terpsicore added to the November 1734 revival is 8b. |
| 9 | Teseo | Nicola Francesco Haym, after Philippe Quinault's libretto for Thésée | 10 January 1713 | London, Queen's Theatre | 29 June 1947, Handel Festival Göttingen | 5 acts |
| 10 | Silla | Giacomo Rossi, after Plutarch's Life of Sulla | 2 June 1713? | London, Queen's Theatre? | Much of the music was re-used in Amadigi | |
| 11 | Amadigi di Gaula | Rossi or Haym, after Antoine Houdar de la Motte's Amadis de Grèce, 1699 | 25 May 1715 | London, King's Theatre | Osnabrück, 1929 | Various additions during the initial run and the revivals of 1716 and 1717 |
| 12a/b | Radamisto | Haym, after Domenico Lalli's L'amor tirannico, o Zenobia | 27 April 1720 | London, King’s Theatre | 27 June 1927, Handel Festival Göttingen | Librettos of the revised versions of December 1720 and 1728 exist |
| 13 | Muzio Scevola | Paolo Antonio Rolli, after a reworking of a Nicolò Minato libretto by Silvio Stampiglia | 15 April 1721 | London, King’s Theatre | 1928, Essen | only Act 3 is by Handel |
| 14 | Floridante | Rolli, after Francesco Silvani's La costanza in trionfo | 9 December 1721 | London, King’s Theatre | 10 May 1962, Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon | Revised versions premiered in 1722, 1727 and 1733 |
| 15 | Ottone | Haym, after Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino's libretto for Antonio Lotti's opera Teofane | 12 January 1723 | London, King’s Theatre | 5 July 1921, Handel Festival Göttingen | Revised versions premiered in 1726 and 1733 |
| 16 | Flavio | Haym, after M. Noris's Il Flavio Cuniberto | 14 May 1723 | London, King’s Theatre | 2 July 1967, Handel Festival Göttingen | The libretto of the revised version of 1732 exists |
| 17 | Giulio Cesare | Haym | 20 February 1724 | London, King’s Theatre | 1922, Handel Festival Göttingen | |
| 18 | Tamerlano | Haym, after Agostin Piovene and Nicholas Pradon | 31 October 1724 | London, King’s Theatre | 7 September 1924, Karlsruhe | |
| 19 | Rodelinda | Haym, after Antonio Salvi, after Pierre Corneille's play Pertharite, roi des Lombards | 13 February 1725 | London, King’s Theatre | 26 June 1920, Handel Festival Göttingen | |
| 20 | Scipione | Rolli | 12 March 1726 | London, King’s Theatre | 1937, Handel Festival Göttingen | |
| 21 | Alessandro | O. Mauro | 5 May 1726 | London, King’s Theatre | 1959, Stuttgart | |
| 22 | Admeto | Haym | 31 January 1727 | London, King’s Theatre | 1964, Abingdon | |
| 23 | Riccardo Primo | Rolli, after Francesco Briani | 11 November 1727 | London, King’s Theatre | 8 July 1964, Sadler's Wells Theatre, London | |
| 24 | Siroe | Haym, after Metastasio | 17 February 1728 | London, King’s Theatre | December 1925, Gera | |
| 25 | Tolomeo | Haym, adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece | 30 April 1728 | London, King’s Theatre | 19 June 1938, Handel Festival Göttingen | |
| 26 | Lotario | After Antonio Salvi | 2 December 1729 | London, King’s Theatre | 3 September 1975, Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames | |
| 27 | Partenope | After Silvio Stampiglia | 24 February 1730 | London, King’s Theatre | 23 June 1935, Handel Festival Göttingen | |
| 28 | Poro | After Metastasio | 2 February 1731 | London, King’s Theatre | 1928, Braunschweig | |
| 29 | Ezio | Metastasio | 15 January 1732 | London, King’s Theatre | 30 June 1926, Handel Festival Göttingen | |
| 30 | Sosarme | After Salvi | 15 February 1732 | London, King’s Theatre | 1970, Abingdon | First draft, Fernando, Re Di Castiglia, revived in 2007 by Il Complesso Barocco |
| 31 | Orlando | After Capece, after Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso | 27 January 1733 | London, King’s Theatre | 6 May 1959, Abingdon | |
| 32 | Arianna in Creta | After Pietro Pariati's Arianna e Teseo | 26 January 1734 | London, King’s Theatre | ||
| A 11 | Oreste | After Giangualberto Barlocci | 18 December 1734 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | 1990, Karlsruhe | Pasticcio |
| 33 | Ariodante | After Salvi, after Ariosto's Orlando Furioso | 8 January 1735 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | ||
| 34 | Alcina | After Ariosto's Orlando Furioso | 16 April 1735 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | 1928, Leipzig | |
| 35 | Atalanta | After Belisario Valeriani | 12 May 1736 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | 1970, Hintlesham Festival, Hintlesham | |
| 36 | Arminio | After Salvi | 12 January 1737 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | 23 February 1935, Leipzig | |
| 37 | Giustino | Adapted from Pariati's Giustino, after Nicolo Beregan's Il Giustino | 16 February 1737 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | 21 April 1963, Abingdon | |
| 38 | Berenice | After Salvi | 18 May 1737 | London, Covent Garden Theatre | ||
| 39 | Faramondo | Adapted from Apostolo Zeno's Faramondo | 3 January 1738 | London, King’s Theatre | 5 March 1976, Handel Festival, Halle | |
| A 13 | Alessandro Severo | After Apostolo Zeno | 25 February 1738 | London, King’s Theatre | 18 March 1997, Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, London | Pasticcio |
| 40 | Serse | After Stampiglia | 15 April 1738 | London, King’s Theatre | 5 July 1924, Handel Festival Göttingen | Also known as Xerxes |
| A 14 | Giove in Argo | Antonio Maria Lucchini | 1 May 1739 | London, King’s Theatre | 15 September 2006, Markgräfliches Opernhaus, Bayreuth | Pasticcio |
| 41 | Imeneo | After Stampiglia's Imeneo | 22 November 1740 | London, theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields | 13 March 1960, Handel Festival, Halle | |
| 42 | Deidamia | Rolli | 10 January 1741 | London, theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields | ||
| 49 | Acis and Galatea | John Gay, drawing on John Dryden's translation of from Ovid's Metamorphoses | 1718 | Cannons, Little Stanmore | Variously described as a serenata, a masque, a pastoral opera, a "little opera", an entertainment, and an oratorio |