Getting a Handel on Kilkenny Arts Festival with Messiah performance
When GF Handel arrived by boat from Holyhead during the winter of 1741, his career was in the doldrums. His last two operas had flopped in London and he saw potential in Dublin for a change of direction.
He cut out the expensive costumes and staging, applied his opera-writing skills to a religious text and it is a familiar fact that Handel’s Messiah made its debut in Dublin in April 1742.
