it turns out composer george fridrick handel, which means "market in german, was not only a musical whiztrepreneurial one. >> the dominant pattern in the 17th century as handel got started was you either worked for the church or you worked for the nobility. >> reporter: harvard's mike scherer has written a classic on classical music and economics: "quarternotes and banknotes." "opera was the road to independence from the patronage of court and clergy," he says. >> and the composers competed as freelances to have their compositions chosen to be operas. >> reporter: handel, on royal retainer in london, jumped into the game, according to m.i.t. musicologist ellen harris. >> his first opera is "rinaldo," 1711, and it was a huge hit. he probably would have gotten a flat fee for writing the opera and that probably was about £200 and he would have had a benefit night, so he could take the box office from that one night. could have brought in £500-600. >> reporter: the currency conversion web site, measuring worth, calculates that would be something like 800,000 pounds today, well over a million

>> reporter: to , however, george fridrick handel's a and business success is a causfor celebration. successful and endedp leaving fortune, on the order £20,0 pounds sterling which, in those days, w a lot of money. >> reporter: many millio, in fact, suorting charities to this very day and setting example for composers for er afte ♪ >> ifill: again, the mor developments othe day: present obama said he's getting % of what he wanted on health care. he spoke with the ewshour's" jim lehrer, as t senate eared the way for a final vote tomorrow. th"newshour" is alwaysnline. hari sreenivasan, our newsroom, previe what you'll nd there. hari. >>reenivasan: on our web site tonight, you c compare how people who le in different types of economies a faring this holidayeason. our "patchwork nion" hardship dex measures gas prices, foclosures and unemployment. on our "worlview" page, we've asked the heads of threelobal aid organizationto describe the worst and leascovered humanitarian crises of009. and someood news from elkhart, all at and more is on our web si, newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and th's th