Atalanta (opera) spectacular display of fireworks, which was highly popular with the royal family and the London audience, and the opera and fireworks display were revived a number of times in the year of its first performance. An arioso from the opera, "Care selve", is often heard in recital and on recordings. The German-born Handel had brought Italian opera to London stages for the first time in 1711 with his opera "Rinaldo". An enormous success, "Rinaldo" created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas
Baroque music of the British Isles Despite these hindrances, his aim (and that of his collaborator John Dryden) was to establish serious opera as a dramatic form in England, but these hopes ended with Purcell's early death at the age of 37 in 1695 and English opera gradually fell out of favour and Italian opera began to dominate. After the death of Charles II in 1685, royal patronage of music became less significant. In the short and troubled reign of his successor James II (1685–88), whose more overt Catholicism, together with his preference for Italian music and musicians, limited patronage of Anglican church music and the