All posts by Sandra Dolby

Maybe it’s misinformation

Sparks from Science and Society, The Handel Seminar Continues, ,

Handel blog 6*

From Katherine: If you watch television, some sources say do wear a mask.  Others say it is unnecessary, just a recommendation.  Some say find that malaria medicine; it will cure the virus.  Doctors say nothing has been proven to work against COVID-19.  Some news sources say things are starting to turn around.  Others say the worst is yet to come.  How do you know which sources to trust?  How did people get accurate news stories in Handel’s day?  Journals, letters, and newspapers were a lot slower than today’s television, Internet, and other media.  Notwithstanding their slowness, were eighteenth-century sources more accurate?  Could you trust them?

Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year was written in 1722, 57 years after the Great Plague of London in 1665.  Critics still debate over what to call Defoe’s work.  Is it history, historical fiction, a novel?  In our discussions of Lydia’s letters to Handel, we, too, wondered about the source of one story she mentioned—a piece of news that reached London before Handel had returned from a 1750 trip to the continent.  There had evidently been a carriage accident near Harlem in the Netherlands in which Handel was injured.  Peter commented: “Actually, as Brad suggested, it was odd that this incident was reported among Handel’s friends in London.  Obviously Handel himself was not the one sharing the information, maybe a newspaper story instead.” (p. 478) How did people in London know?  Was it a rumor?  What did they know?  Handel’s friends must have wondered and worried as they had only vague secondary sources on the incident until Handel himself came home and set the story straight. 

From Ross:  I don’t know much about it, but I know there is a source people can use today to help them decide whether the news we hear is reliable.  In Handel’s day, the sources were fairly limited, but today there are countless sources of varying quality.  You can get an app called Newsguard that is supposed to give an evaluation of news sources derived through a set of criteria and applied by professional journalists.  The idea is simply to give a grade to the source itself, not to dissect any given news item. 

From Angela:  Forella wanted me to mention that we have been watching one of those Great Courses Plus series of lectures, this one titled Fighting Misinformation.  So far, it has been pretty interesting, and I think they did mention that Newsguard app as well.

From Clara:  Well, this is all very interesting, but I was expecting someone to comment on the movie about Farinelli, but since we haven’t moved in that direction, let me suggest a movie you should all watch while you are sheltering in place.  It’s Teacher’s Pet—the 1958 version with Clark Gable and Doris Day, not the newer one.  It’s about journalism, and to me anyway, what we are really trying to grapple with here is a major change in journalism from earlier times.  Watch the movie and let me know what you think.  You can read some info on it here.

From Katherine:  Thanks Clara.  Teacher’s Pet is one of my favorite movies, and you are right.  It raises many questions about the role of journalism then and now.  A good suggestion for something to watch this evening.  Stay safe, everyone.

*All posts listed as “Handel blog” are texts that use the fictional characters in my book The Handel Letters: A Biographical Conversation.  As in that book, the posts will often reference things from Handel’s life or time period as starting points.  And the post will cite a page or paragraph in the book when it seems relevant.   Find The Handel Letters.

And sigh for freedom

The Handel Seminar Continues, ,

Handel blog 5*

From Katherine:  This isolation is definitely beginning to be irksome, even to an introvert like me.  The practice of quarantining people who have a contagious illness and requiring people who are well to isolate themselves is one that became common as the Plague swept through parts of Europe in the mid-1600s, shortly before Handel was born in 1685.  It did help in bringing an end to the spread of the Plague, though that disease was quite different from the current COVID-19.  One of Handel’s most famous arias voiced a longing for freedom—“Lascia ch’io pianga.” Or, as the opening words translate: “Let me weep over my cruel fate and sigh for freedom.” The aria is from Rinaldo, but the beautiful melody is the one our Lydia first heard while Handel was still in Hamburg, before he went to Italy.  Then it became the song she most associated with Handel:  “Lascia la spina—leave the thorn but take the rose.  Such a beautiful piece.” (p. 509) I guess its message–that we should try to avoid the bad and grasp what is good and beautiful–is timely. 

From Clara:  I remember trying to play that melody on my cello back when we first talked about it.  The more popular words from Rinaldo were actually the ones sung by the castrato Farinelli in the movie—remember, where Handel supposedly faints from the sheer beauty of hearing Farinelli sing the aria.  I found a clip of him singing it.  You can hear it here. A friend on campus told me that the voice in the movie was actually a combination of a soprano and tenor rather than a modern countertenor as you might expect.  I may have to watch the movie again.

From Brad:  Isn’t that the movie that had some pretty sexy scenes in it, at least at the beginning?  Here’s some information on the film.  I think I should be able to stream it to my TV.  The night will not be wasted.

From Katherine:  I may have to watch it as well.  Thanks, everyone.  Maybe we will have a collaborative movie review next time.  Stay well.

*All posts listed as “Handel blog” are texts that use the fictional characters in my book The Handel Letters: A Biographical Conversation.  As in that book, the posts will often reference things from Handel’s life or time period as starting points.  And the post will cite a page or paragraph in the book when it seems relevant.   Find The Handel Letters.

Portraits

The Handel Seminar Continues

Handel blog 4*

From Katherine:  Forella reminded me that a lot of us who are in the most “vulnerable” age bracket with COVID-19—and I guess that would be all of us except Angela—a lot of us are thinking more seriously about what we would want to leave our loved ones if we do in fact succumb to this new pestilence.  We all recognize a shortened time horizon as we get older, but this coronavirus has spurred many to write a will, just as Handel did when he had that first bout of paralysis.  His decision to leave a gift of money to his perfumer, James Smyth, was one that he made just shortly before he died, but interestingly, Handel had decided several years before his final days to gift some of his wealthier friends and some of his relatives with a few of the fine portraits that had been painted of him over the years.

From CD:  I remember seeing the painting of Handel by Balthasar Denner at the National Portrait Gallery on one of my trips to England.  If I remember correctly, he had given the picture to his friend and associate, John Smith, Jr. 

From Peter:  Lydia wrote to Handel in one of her letters about this generous bestowing of portraits.  She said, “And I, my friend, will always treasure the lovely miniature portrait I have of you as a very young man.  It is one of my dearest possessions.  Edward and I were so honored to be gifted with this reminder of our youthful friendship.  I am sure your relatives in Saxony were pleased with the portraits you carried to them as well.”(p. 467) Rather than portraits in oil, now we mostly have smaller photographs in eight by ten frames if we want to display pictures of beloved family members.  Large painted portraits typically are reserved for important heads of state and the like although museums are full of those often finely done portraits.  They were probably more flattering than photographs would be.  Does anyone have any family portraits that carry on the larger, more imposing portrait tradition?

From Wait:  My sister has a picture of our grandmother that was, I think, her engagement portrait.  It’s pretty big—like 16” by 20”—and in an elaborate frame.  My sister asked to have it when my grandmother died.  I’ll send a photo of it you can insert here.

From Katherine:  Thanks for the comments everyone—and the pictures.  More tomorrow.

*All posts listed as “Handel blog” are texts that use the fictional characters in my book The Handel Letters: A Biographical Conversation.  As in that book, the posts will often reference things from Handel’s life or time period as starting points.  And the post will cite a page or paragraph in the book when it seems relevant.   Find The Handel Letters.