Water Music that the Elector of Hanover approved of Handel's permanent move to London, knowing the separation between them would be temporary. Both were aware the Elector of Hanover would eventually succeed to the British throne after Queen Anne's death. Many portions of "Water Music" have become familiar in popular culture. From 1958 to 1988 this was featured as the theme music from the British network Anglia Television a brand by ITV. From 1977 to 1996, Walt Disney World featured movements from both installments of "Water Music" as the background music for the Electrical Water Pageant, a parade of sea creatures lit
Opera in German music, "Singspiele" were no match for contemporary opera serias in artistic sophistication. A milestone of German opera was Anton Schweitzer's "Alceste", with a libretto by Wieland, premiered in 1773 in Weimar. At the end of the 18th century a composer who would change all this would emerge: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As music moved into the Classical era in the late 18th century, most German-born composers still avoided writing opera in their own language. The great figure of the early Classical period was Christoph Willibald von Gluck but his pioneering reforms were directed at Italian and French opera, not the German