Gluck called on Handel, who told someone that he knew no more of
counterpoint than his cook. Gluck was just under thirty, Handel just over
sixty, and one can understand Handel's attitude; in any case he gave him
some plain and practical advice as to how to please an English audience,
which was not much use to Gluck, as he never visited this country again.
Handel was quite right in his criticism, for Gluck was always very clumsy
in his technique; and, at any rate, Gluck found him friendly enough and
spoke of him forty years later with the profoundest respect. It is probable
that Gluck heard _Judas_, as he was still in London in April.
A significant indication of the new popularity which Handel had acquired
was the production of a _pasticcio_, at the Italian Opera in November 1747,
made up chiefly from the operas of Handel; but the experiment was not
repeated. In the autumn of 1748 a company of Italian comic-opera singers
came over to London; they brought an entirely new type of entertainment,
and after their success Handelian opera was buried for ever.
_Alexander Balus_ was not one of Handel's popular works; _Joshua_ (March
23, 1748) is now pretty well forgotten, but was a great attraction when
new, mainly because it contained "See the Conquering Hero," which was
afterwards transferred to _Judas Maccabaeus_.
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