Musical Offerings ⦁ 2025 ⦁ Volume 16 ⦁ Number 1 11 in Arianna in Nasso, there is no substantial evidence that the marriage between the two was subject to any specific criticism.54 Therefore, the partisan controversy surrounding the Ariadne operas and the marriage of William IV to Princess Anne seems merely due to the need for resistance against Whig power. Furthermore, the royal family was not excluded from taking sides in the rivaling productions. King George II and his wife Queen Caroline along with their daughter Anne, who was a student of Handel’s, were staunch supporters of the great composer. In the book Handel in London by Jane Glover, Lord Hervey, a close ally of the Queen, is quoted to have said that “[a]n anti-Handelist was looked upon as an anti-courtier, and voting against the Court in Parliament was hardly a less remissible or more venial sin than speaking against Handel or going to the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Opera.”55 This implies that to oppose Handel was to oppose the British crown. These are strong words regarding the relationship of Handel to his king and queen making it impossible for him to compose without their approval in mind. In addition, Handel was asked to present his anthem “This Is the Day” on Anne’s wedding day. The direct involvement of Handel in the ceremony and his loyalty to King George II and Queen Caroline are sufficient clues that his opera was an allegory representing the union of Princess Anne and William IV. It is evident that the majority of the royal family greatly favored the composer and his work. However, their son Prince Frederick preferred the Opera of the Nobility. This bias only increased as he grew angry at the news of his sister’s betrothal since he believed that he should have been the first to marry as the eldest child.56 The involvement of the Patriot and Whig parties in the companies that presented the Ariadne operas and the expressed biases for either production within the royal family nearly settles the case of the political intent behind them. Conclusion After the examination of opera’s history, composers’ methods and motivations, and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British politics, it is clear that opera and politics are interrelated. The inspection of the Ariadne operas serves as evidence that by means of allegory and satire composers include propaganda in their works, and this is only one 54 McGeary, The Politics of Opera, 168–169. 55 Glover, 224. 56 Glover, 223–225.
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