17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Despised and rejected,' she personified resurrection in ‘Messiah'
Charles King, a professor of international affairs and government at Georgetown University, is the author of 'Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah.'
Eighteenth-century composers were not accustomed to undertaking greatest-hits tours — but George Frideric Handel may have invented the concept. A German immigrant to London, Handel was the most renowned public musician of his day. His 'Water Music' accompanied King George I on a lavish boating party. His anthems ushered George II to his coronation. But in his late-fifties, obese and fond of unfashionably large wigs, Handel needed a revival.
