Parnasso in Festa

Parnasso in festa, per li sponsali di Teti e Peleo ("Parnassos in celebration for the nuptials of Thetis and Peleus", HWV 73), by George Frideric Handel, is a festa teatrale, a form also called a "serenata", a type of Italian opera intended as entertainment to celebrate a festive royal or state occasion. The work was written to celebrate the marriage of Anne, Princess Royal and Prince William of Orange. Parnasso in festa had its first performance in London at the King's Theatre on 13 March 1734 and was repeated five times. The operatic entertainment, to an anonymous libretto, was such a success at its London premiere that although it was intended as one-off production for a royal wedding, Parnasso in festa was revived by Handel in several subsequent seasons.

The German-born Handel had been resident in London since 1712 and had there achieved great success as a composer of Italian operas. He had also enjoyed the patronage of monarchs Queen Anne, George I and George II and other members of the royal family and had been commissioned by them to compose numerous pieces of music for worship services in the royal chapels as well as for other royal occasions. Handel enjoyed a particularly warm and close relationship with Anne, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of George II, who supported his opera seasons, was an accomplished musician herself, and to whom Handel even gave private lessons – although he did not enjoy teaching, he made an exception in her case. Handel composed the anthem for her wedding, "This is the day which the Lord hath made", to Biblical texts selected by Anne herself, which was performed at her marriage to William IV, Prince of Orange, at the French chapel in St James's Palace on 14 March 1734. The evening before the wedding, the princess, the rest of the royal family and all their court attended the first performance of Parnasso in festa, specially composed by Handel for the occasion to an anonymous Italian text, at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket where he was presenting his seasons of Italian operas, and with the same star opera singers who were appearing in his current successful opera "Arianna in Creta".

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