Winton Dean

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Winton Dean (b Birkenhead, 18 March 1916) is an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research concerning the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of the Baroque composer George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his book Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques (1959). After an education at Harrow and Cambridge, Dean became notable was a writer on music, particularly after World War II, when he published several works concerning the compositions of George Bizet. Handel, however, remained his main focus and apart from the book already mentioned he also published Handel and the Opera Seria (Berkeley, 1969), and a more general Essays on Opera (Oxford, 1990, 2/1993).

Dean contributed heavily to a number of musicological publications, including Musical Times and Opera. Dean's writings also include works on the topic of French Opera, and also Italian Opera before the dominance of Verdi. His reputation, however, has been largely forged by his study of Handel's works, and Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques is widely acknowledged as a seminal work not only in Handel scholarship but also in musicology as a whole as a result of its detailed analysis of original documents and thorough approach to the topic.