On Board with Handel

Here’s a great story from yesterday’s Irish Times. It tells of a new drama based on Handel’s famous ‘Messiah’ oratorio, which, as everyone knows, was first performed in Fishamble Street in Dublin, more that 250 years ago.

The piece tells some of the story of the man himself and the circumstances and it has everything – a man facing ruin, an abused contralto with a highly dubious past (which would shame many of today’s celebrity obsessed wags), a famine ravaged country, an outraged church, and a showman who could teach P T Barnum a thing or two about marketing.

Novelist Joseph O’Connor has written the script. Why this has not been made into a movie I don’t know.