delusa, all theatres in London were closed because of the political turmoil caused by the Stuart rising. When the political situation improved theatrical activities recommenced with a première of Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera La caduta de' giganti (The Fall of the Giants) on 17 January 1746. La caduta de' giganti, a command from Lord Middlesex, with a libretto by Vanneschi, glorified the hero of the battle of Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland. Frasi, who had created the role of the giant Briareo for Gluck, was back on stage and continued her intense musical activity: first with a role in Gluck's second London opera (Artamene) and then with works by Matteo Capranica, Antonio Caldara, Francesco Maria Veracini, Domènec Terradellas, Pietro Domenico Paradisi and others. In addition, her association with the annual charity concerts in aid of the Fund for Decay'd - known today as the Royal Society of Musicians - started as early as 1743. The earliest documented occasion (a fundraiser event) on which she performed English-language airs, including some by Handel, in public was as early as March 1746. Her charity fundraising also included benefactors such as the Foundling Hospital, where Handel held regular benefit concerts and annual performances of Messiah that continued until Handel's death and beyond, the Jermyn Lying-in Hospital, in aid of which she sang in a performance of Arne's revised version of Alfred organised at the King's Theatre on 12 May 1753, and many others. Noticed by Handel A few years after her London début she is noticed by Handel, who, appreciating her singing, her determination to sing articulately in English and, above all, her musical expressiveness, hires her for his 1749 season. That same year she becomes his principal soprano and sings the title role in Susanna (her first Handel oratorio). Handel takes her under his wing and she quickly becomes one of his favourites. "The subtle artistry and emotional depth of Handel's [powerful] writing for Frasi" is a testament to how expressive her singing must have been and to how much Handel must have estimated this particular talent of hers. For example, in Theodora (premièred in 1750 with Frasi being once again the principal soprano in a title role written specifically for her by Handel), Act II, Scene 2 opens with "a plaintive symphony for flutes and strings establish[ing] the lonely despair of the character, and [then] her dread for the violation of her