AS CONDUCTOR of the Handel Opera Society from its inauguration in 1955 to its demise in 1985, Charles Farncombe played a leading role in the re-establishment of Handel’s Italian operas on the London stage, a generation after their rediscovery in Germany.

During that period the society and the Kitchings’ Unicorn Opera in Abingdon restored nearly all Handel’s operas (about 40 works) to stage presentation.

Their first venture, with Deidamia in 1955, was an act of some bravery, even when sung in English translation: 50 years on, a rereading of the press reviews reveals the depth of misunderstanding under which Handel’s genre of Baroque opera laboured at that time. An important landmark came in 1961, when the London production of Rinaldo was taken abroad, to the Komische Oper in Berlin and the Händelfestspiele in Halle.

Although Farncombe’s approach to Handel’s music was stylish and well informed, and early solecisms such as the downward transposition of castrato roles were gradually abandoned, the opera society’s later performances came to seem a little old-fashioned, partly because they were rather tardy in embracing the “authentic” performance practices of the 1970s.

The society’s schedule also included performances of his oratorios (staged and unstaged) and interesting concert programmes: their swansong was a reconstruction of Handel’s first charity concert in aid of the Foundling Hospital.

Farncombe graduated in engineering from London University in 1940, but retrained as a musician with the Royal School of Church Music (1947-48) and the Royal Academy of Music (1948-51). In addition to his role with the Handel Opera Society, he was chief conductor of the Royal Court Theatre at Drottningholm, Sweden, from 1970 to 1979, and had long-standing associations with the Llantilio Crossenny Festival (of which he was a founder in 1962) and London Chamber Opera, as well as a number of other regular appointments relating to operatic and choral music. He was an effective guest conductor, in Germany and the US, mainly covering repertories from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Little of his operatic performance legacy is preserved in audio recordings: only Rameau’s Castor et Pollux is currently available in Britain, though the Handel Opera Society’s performance of Rodelinda (with Joan Sutherland) is sometimes encountered elsewhere.

The strength of Farncombe’s musicianship tended to be underestimated on account of his preference for diplomacy and courtesy rather than tantrums in the pursuit of his professional activities; he was often able to produce worthwhile performances in challenging circumstances.

He was appointed CBE in 1977, a knight of the Order of the North Star of Sweden in 1982 and held a number of honorary doctorates.

Farncombe’s wife, Sally Mae Felps, whom he married in 1963, died in 2003. He is survived by their daughter.

Charles Farncombe, CBE, conductor, was born on July 29, 1919. He died on June 30, 2006, aged 86.