Which I wonder, would Handel have preferred – the very magnificent rendition of his Messiah in St George’s Church on Thursday evening – or the Queer Georgian Messiah with Les Bougies Baroques the following evening at the Foundling Museum? I suspect that he would have loved them both.
The Messiah at St George’s
The London Handel Festival as always did him proud on Thursday evening in a packed St George’s. Hilary Cronin‘s ‘Man of sorrows’ and Felix Kemp‘s Sounding Trumpets were especially glorious while the roof was roundly raised by the Hallelujah chorus, that astounding never ending ‘Amen’ and the audience’s applause at the end.
And, Handel lovers, don’t forget that booking for the 2025 London Handel Festival is now open – cantatas, celebrity recitals, the singing competition, chamber music and this year’s ‘mythical double bill’, the Tales of Apollo and Hercules at Shoreditch Town Hall. Don’t miss them!
Les Bougies Baroques – a Queer Georgian Yuletide
Handel would definitely have loved Les Bougies Baroque‘s Queer Georgian Yuletide Messiah.
While it was tremendous fun – everyone, as you can see in full costume – it was also hugely respectful not only of Handel’s music but of the story of the Messiah. Taking note of the many pagan Yulestide festivities which long predated Christianity – and of Handel and his contemporaries’ constant modifying of their works to suit occasions, available performers or the needs of specific soloists – they made a number of judicious cuts to the work and ‘staged’ it in a Molly house. This allowed them to portray the central figure of the Messiah, ‘despised, rejected and a man of sorrows’ not only as Christ but as one of their ‘oppressed queer brethren’ who are still despised and rejected in so many places around the world.
‘Despised’?….
And just in case anyone is thinking that 21st century liberal London no longer despises ‘queerness’. When I arrived at the Foundling Hospital there was a group outside shouting and waving ‘Jesus is our Saviour’ banners – and a whole bunch of policemen. I thought it was just some pre-Christmas demonstration. But no. They had heard about the event and had come to protest against this ‘queer takeover’, greeting the performers as they arrived with cries of ‘Shame’. This was very unpleasant for the performers but, this is a free country and everyone has a right to peacefully make their views known. However, the Met regarded this group as sufficiently threatening to deploy two dozen policemen to keep order.
But back to the performance
The amazingly hard working cast (Louisa Petais, Joshua Elmore, Harry Grigg and Jack Holton) not only brought off the ‘big numbers’ very beautifully and movingly but doubled as the chorus – accompanied by a small group of period instrumentalists and a proper early 18th trumpet blowing its heart out.
And of course the fact that this Yuletide festivity was staged at the Foundling Hospital made it that much more special as Handel, along with William Hogarth, was a passionate supporter of Thomas Coram’s home for abandoned babies. Indeed on May 1st, 1750, Handel directed the first London performance of The Messiah — sung by the Foundling Hospital’s blind children — and performed it every year thereafter as a fund raiser for the hospital, finally making the charity a beneficiary of his will to enable it to put on benefit performances of the work in perpetuity.
And so to La Pompadour…..
Some of you will have come to the delightful recital that the lovely Nathanial Mander, La Pomp’s owner and collaborator, played for us last year. At that point she was sitting on a couple of trestles and was short quite a few bunches of roses – but still sounded delightful.
But now…… she has her full complement of floral extravaganzas and not only some finely painted cabriole legs but cloven golden feet!! And Nathaniel has agree to bring her back to Hampstead Lane on January 30th to give us a whole evening of Bach preludes, suites, rondeaux and minuets from the Anna Magdalena Bach books. What a treat in store!
And, as it happens, it was at a Bougies Baroques concert last year that I first met Nathaniel. He, with Bougies’ director, Ian Peter Bujego, was staging a re-enactment of the supposed harpsichord ‘duel’ that took place in 1709 between Domenico Scarlatti and the young Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. A fine introduction.
There will, of course, be a splendid 18th century supper to follow the concert.
Book here – and do not delay as we expect a full house!
And here are Nathaniel and La Pompadour in full flow….
For other future happenings in at Hampstead Lane and elsewhere – see our Upcoming Events page.
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