He was fat. He was bald. He was bow-legged. He hadn’t had a hit in years. His opera company was flirting with bankruptcy. The dazzling masterpieces of his youth were little more than a distant memory. His latest production flopped. 

George Handel was a has-been.

He didn’t know it, but in 1737, Handel stood at the cusp of an intellectual revolution that would hold profound consequences for the course of European history. Thanks to a risky bet, a dose of desperation, and a series of remarkable accidents, Handel composed the spectacular epic we call Messiah. A theme he chose not because of the Church, but in spite of it. And music was never quite the same again.

This fall, let’s go backstage and explore the Messiah from the inside out. We’ll journey to the boisterous, bawdy, ramshackle landscape of Georgian London. We’ll rub shoulders with Queen Anne, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift. We’ll learn how Bart Simpson provides the keys to understanding the Baroque. We’ll discover Handel’s longshot story as a musical rebel, from child prodigy to college dropout to razzle-dazzle hit machine. We’ll walk with him through stroke and blindness, failure and triumph. We’ll meet kings, queens, princes, mountebanks, charlatans, and scoundrels. And we’ll drench ourselves in some of the greatest music ever written.

Who is leading this course?

Chris Lydgate is an author and journalist with a longstanding obsession with classical music, rock music, and Handel. He led the FrizzLit classes Dune, Mozart Unplugged and Classical Music for Lovers and Haters. Despite having been born in England, he bears no relation to Dr. Tertius Lydgate in Middlemarch. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Are meetings recorded?

Yes. All meetings are recorded and automatically sent out to all ticketholders.

Which recording of Messiah are we listening to?

So much to choose from. But for now, I think Trevor Pinnock’s magisterial 1988 recording with the English Concert and Choir. Buy the CD! Or find it on Apple Music or YouTube 

What do I do before our first meeting?

Nothing. You do not need to read anything or listen to anything before our first meeting. Come ready to learn about the strange life and times of George Handel. 

Art

Handel portrait illustration splendidly drawn by Kathryn Rathke