Baroque specialist, harpsichordist and pioneering conductor of Handel opera passes at 80.

The pioneering American early music conductor and harpsichordist Alan Curtis has died unexpectedly in Florence, Italy. A leading light in the period instrument revival and a noted proponent of Handel’s operas, he leaves behind a raft of fond memories and a rich and rare discography.

Born November 17, 1934 in Mason, Michigan, Curtis studied at the University of Illinois before moving to Amsterdam to work with early music pathfinder Gustav Leonhardt. Beginning his long career as a harpsichordist, Curtis made recordings of mainstream repertoire such as Bach’s Goldberg Variations at a time when piano versions were still very much the norm.

In the 1950s he was a leading theorist in the study of early plucked strings and keyboard instruments and became the first modern harpsichordist to address the problems of Louis Couperin’s notorious unmeasured preludes. He went on to commission the first modern copy of a chitarrone as well as the first chromatic (split-key) harpsichord to be built in the 20th century. His use of the archlute in the Baroque opera was considered ground-breaking.

Combining a performance...