Thank you Tony for drawing my attention to this.  I am really disappointed not to have read any reply. I do like Handel, but feel his operas and oratorios go on a bit.  The Guardian piece seemed to be putting a worthwhile question mark against the phenomenon of the Handel operatic revival.

As regards the lack of choruses and ensembles, the first three parts of the Ring manage with neither.

There is a lack of variety of vocal types, but to my mind preferable to Puccini, where you need never hear a mezzo and mezzos and basses never have their solo lyric hits to fit on one side of a 78.  Handel has more variety of characters, even if the majority are singing spectacularly above middle C.

Castrati did sing in oratorios, but not inevitably the star role as in opera.

Any comments from more informed members???

I'm afraid to say I am an unapologetic fan of Handel's operas (and also of the genre of high-baroque opera in general - Vivaldi & Hasse's operas are also rewarding seams to mine).

If one can extrapolate from the situation prevailing rather later, in the 1780s, the situation with English tenors was very weak, and composers avoided casting them specifically because of this reason.  (This is known from the press coverage at the time of the appearance in London of the Irish-but-Italian-trained tenor, Michael "Mick" Kelly, the first "star operatic tenor" in Britain.  He took his above-the-stave notes in full voice (famously socking-out a top Bb in his warhorse aria, "Spirit Of My Sainted Sire" which allegedly "caused the ladies to faint") and commentators of the time mention this fact continuously - and contrast it to the previous fashion for lightweight "tenorino" type voices, or singers who saw no shame in head-voicing or falsettoing at the top.  If this situation prevailed 40-50 years earlier too,  then it's no wonder Handel avoided writing much for tenors    The fact that Purcell's operas also avoid anything major for tenors seems to add weight to this argument.

(I have spent this afternoon rehearsing entirely with just one tenor, and I can add that there are many powerful reasons not to lumber yourself with them in operas if it's avoidable )

Nor, frankly I am not bothered by Handel's choruses, due to over-exposure to them at a Church Of England school by a zealous oratorio-fanatic of greatly advanced years. (I can't tolerate Jubal's bloody Lyre in any shape or form to this day, sadly). 

What you do have in Handel's operas, however, is usually very strong libretti (with some notable and woeful exceptions) and plots that bounce along very happily.   The best of them (Alcina, Rodelinda, Serse, Giulio Cesare, Ariodante, etc) were written as vehicles for the stars of their day,  and they demand nothing less in modern performance...  otherwise they tend to fall a bit flat.  (Unfortunately much of the Handel repertoire has suffered from the "we're-crap-but-we're-your-only-chance-to-hear" brigade, but luckily things have improved in the last decade especially).

Here's Scholl in top form:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WWRHdTCJyyA

I do enjoy the choruses in the oratorios, but the absence of choruses in the operas doesn't bother me at all, I must say. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

I wasn't too impressed with the Grauniad article. I've been to most of the recent productions he's moaning about and they were more or less packed to the gunwales so I'm not sure in what sense there's too much of it. I agree that it would be good to give Rameau etc an airing but why at the expense of Handel? They could always ditch Puccini instead - now that there is too much of

It also isn't true that the works are never cut in performance - not sure where he got that idea from, though it may seem like that to a Handelphobe...And there was quite a good tenor role in "Poro".

I went to the concert performance of Ariodante at the Barbican a few weeks ago. It was my first Handel opera in performance (I have Giulio Cesare on disc and DVD) and I was totally engaged for the full 4+ hours. The only problem with the length was that, despite superb singing/ playing, many people left at the second interval (21:50) as they would miss trains home. As it was, an 23:10 finish meant I didn't get back home until 1:00am which, as it was a Tuesday night, wasn't too great for work the next day!  

Well, at least it wasn't Blest Pair of Hooters.

Go on then, a few clicks and Theodora can be yours. You won't regret it. And you'll certainly never beat that cast.

i soooooooooooo must switch to amazon dvd rental from lovefilm !

Just found this on YouTube: Handel's 'Acis & Galatea', full opera, sound only; a recording from 1960 conducted by Adrian Boult.  Soloists: Joan Sutherland, Peter Pears, Owen Brannigan and a tenor who isn't named.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJQYnnki2lI

Here's an online libretto:

http://opera.stanford.edu/iu/libretti/acis.htm