Handel’s Samson to kick off the NCH’s choral year
Whereas Messiah is sacred and reverential, Samson is unrelentingly dramatic and dynamic
There’s good reason to believe that when George Frideric Handel landed in Dublin on September 18, 1741, he had no prior intention of staging the premiere of his great oratorio Messiah in the Musick Hall in Fishamble Street the following April.
It was just that things went so well. The welcome was so effusive, the natives so welcoming and initial box-office takings so impressive, that Handel had to pull something spectacular out of ...
