Handel had his troubles with sopranos as people. There’s a story that he once grew so enraged he tried to throw one of his divas out the window. On the other hand, no composer has written more knowledgeably and lovingly for the soprano voice than Handel did.
Kendra Colton
Handel chills thanks to soprano's cool
By Richard Dyer [Boston Globe, 26 Mar 05]
Handel had his troubles with sopranos as people. There's a story that he once grew so enraged he tried to throw one of his divas out the window. On the other hand, no composer has written more knowledgeably and lovingly for the soprano voice than Handel did.
Conductor Grant Llewellyn and the Handel & Haydn Society came up with the idea of a program built around some of the arias he wrote for a few of his favorite soprano voices. The much-recorded Canadian early-music singer Nancy Argenta was supposed to come to sing them, but she canceled about 10 days ago. Boston-based soprano Kendra Colton agreed to step in. A few adjustments were made in the program so that Colton could sing arias that were already in her repertoire, and everything went off without a hitch.