The sentiment of the two last lines was probably voiced by many, especially as both composers were men of great talent and capable of producing excellent work. In the end, the genius of Handel triumphed, but at the expense of both his pocket and his health; bankruptcy and paralysis came upon him, and he in future turned his attention to the more lucrative and less expensive art form, Oratorio. [Sidenote: =Handel’s Operas Obsolete=] That we have been the gainers thereby is undoubted, for whereas many of his oratorios are constantly performed, and are of commanding interest, few would care to sit through a performance of any of his operas, or indeed those of any of the composers mentioned in this chapter. It is not so much that the music is expressed in the idiom of a bygone era, for the style of Handel’s oratorio and opera music is, especially in the arias, very similar; and we are frequently able to listen with pleasure to old works, written for the clavier and for stringed instruments by the Continental contemporaries of the men of this period. It is rather that the dramatic situation is so absurdly poor, that the stereotyped method of procedure in the distribution of the airs, the concessions to the solo singers and the character of the music given to them, and the stiff, unnatural use of the chorus in these operas, combine to make their presentation to-day a matter of artistic impossibility. CHAPTER VI. THE OPERAS OF GLUCK AND THE GREAT COMPOSERS. Gluck and his masterpieces—Mozart—Beethoven—Weber and romantic opera—_Der Freischütz_—Other operas—Schubert—Opera writing a distinct form of composition—The small influence of the really great composers upon opera. The methods of Christoph Willibald Gluck, and his influence upon all that came after him, have already been touched upon. Unlike the operas of Monteverde, the works of the later reformer still hold the boards, and therefore a little consideration to these may now be given, seeing that they influenced the composers of all schools and of every nationality. We may safely ignore the many works written on old methods and produced during the first forty years of the composer’s life; they are practically as obsolete as those of Monteverde. But those written under the strong convictions forced upon him by comparative failure in England are of great importance, and are interesting, not only for the models they set to others, but also for the beauty and worth of the musical ideas which they contain. Those that have the greatest claim to notice have the following titles:— _Orfeo_ (1762), produced in Vienna. _Alceste_ (1767) ” ” _Paris and Helen_ (1769), produced in Vienna. _Iphigenia in Aulide_ (1772), produced in Paris. _Armida_ (1777), produced in Paris. _Iphigenia in Tauride_ (1779), produced in Paris. [Sidenote: =Gluck’s Masterpieces=]