Handel

Born in Germany, trained in Italy, settled in London in his thirties and became a naturalised Englishman and England's national composer. He was in the opera business — assembling companies, selling tickets, running price wars against the rival house — and went bankrupt twice.

When Italian opera lost its London market he switched to English oratorio, and that bet came off. Messiah was premiered in Dublin in 1742, written for a charity appeal and completed in twenty-four days. His music has the quality of someone speaking in public: choruses written broad and direct, solo numbers leaving room for a singer to show off. Beethoven called him the greatest composer who ever lived and said he would kneel at his grave.