One can well understand, then, that Handel was tempted by the desire of taking on his own shoulders, without the control which hampered him, the complete enterprise of the Italian Opera. At the end of the summer of 1728 he went to Italy in search of new arms for the strife. In the course of this tour, which lasted nearly a year,[210] he recruited his singers, renewed his collection of _libretti_ and Italian scores. Above all, he refreshed his Italianism at the source of the new School of Opera, founded by Leonardo Vinci,[211] which reacted against the concert style in the theatre, and sought to give back to Opera a more dramatic character, even at the risk of impoverishing the music. Without sacrificing the richness of his style, Handel did not neglect to profit by these examples in his new operas: _Lotario_ (December, 1729), _Partenope_ (February, 1730), _Poro_ (February, 1731), _Ezio_ (January, 1732), which are notable (particularly the last two) by the beauty of the melodic writing, and the dramatic power of certain pages. The masterpiece of this period is _Orlando_ (January 27, 1733), of which the richness and musical perfection are on a level with the insight into the characters, and the spirited and passionate life of the piece. If the _Tamerlano_ of 1724 awakens ideas of Gluck's tragedies, it is the beautiful operas of Mozart which come to mind in _Orlando_. In continuation of the strife for the Italian Opera, Handel profited by the unexpected success with which the English people had met the reproduction of his _Acis and Galatea_ and his _Esther_,[212] written to English words, and he attempted again, in a more conscientious fashion than ten years before at Chandos', to found a form of musical theatre, freer and richer, where the lyricism of the choruses had free play. For the reproduction of _Esther_ in 1732 he introduced into the work of 1720 the most beautiful choruses from the Coronation Anthems. In the following year he wrote _Deborah_ (March 17, 1733), and _Athaliah_ (July 10, 1733), where the chorus took first place. These grand Biblical dramas would have been able to have awakened in the English nation an enthusiastic response, were it not that this attempt was damaged by a violent quarrel inspired by personal reasons, where art counted for nothing. A dead set was made against _Deborah_,[213] and though _Athaliah_ succeeded at Oxford,[214] Handel did not present it in London until two years later.