Classical Notes: Baroque orchestra aspires to an annual HandelFest

Running from August 20 to 22, the series of events includes a live performance of the composer’s acclaimed opera Acis and Galatea

Julia Doyle, soprano, will feature in Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea from St Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle on Friday as part of Dublin HandelFest. Picture: Louise O’Dwyer

When George Frideric Handel paid a courtesy call to Dean Swift (they hated each other) during his famous Dublin visit for the premiere of Messiah in 1742, he found the famously grumpy satirist ill and barely able to speak. Even so, Swift still mumbled the compliment: “Mr Handel, a German and a genius.”

By some miracle, Swift recovered to give Handel a torrid time before putting his famous St Patrick’s Cathedral choir at the German ...