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Handel: Alexander's Feast
St Georges' Singers and Baroque in the North perform Handel's first great English oratorio.
Part of the St George's Singers 2024-25 Season
Add to my Calendar 05-04-2025 19:30 05-04-2025 21:30 36 Handel: Alexander's Feast By 1736 opera was no longer financially lucrative and Handel was in financial straits. The ode Alexander’s Feast marked a turning point in his fortunes. Based on a poem by John Dryden, it describes a banquet held by Alexander the Great in the captured Persian city of Persepolis, during which the musician Timotheus sings and plays his lyre, inciting Alexander to burn the city down in revenge for the death of his Greek soldiers. With three concertos inserted between the vocal sections, and a final grandiose choral fugue, it was a great success, and persuaded Handel to abandon Italian opera in favour of English choral music. There will be a free pre-concert talk at 18:45. St George's Church, Stockport DD/MM/YYYYDetails
St George's Church
28 Buxton Road
Stockport
Cheshire
SK2 6NU
England
Programme
George Frideric Handel – Alexander's Feast, HWV 75
Performers
Lizzy Humphries – soprano
Joseph Buckmaster – tenor
Graham McCusker – Bass
Neil Taylor – Conductor
St George's Singers, Poynton
Baroque in the North
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
By 1736 opera was no longer financially lucrative and Handel was in financial straits. The ode Alexander’s Feast marked a turning point in his fortunes.
Based on a poem by John Dryden, it describes a banquet held by Alexander the Great in the captured Persian city of Persepolis, during which the musician Timotheus sings and plays his lyre, inciting Alexander to burn the city down in revenge for the death of his Greek soldiers.
With three concertos inserted between the vocal sections, and a final grandiose choral fugue, it was a great success, and persuaded Handel to abandon Italian opera in favour of English choral music.
There will be a free pre-concert talk at 18:45.
