Category Archives: The Handel Seminar Continues

A continuation of topics and dialogues introduced in The Handel Letters: A Biographical Conversation, by Sandra K. Dolby.

Concerts at home

The Handel Seminar Continues,

Handel blog 9*

Handel’s house on Brook Street, London.

From Katherine:  Recently one of the Met’s great sopranos, Joyce DiDonato, who had performed in Handel’s Agrippina, was forced to abandon rehearsals for Massenet’s Werner as the coronavirus swept through New York City.  She and her co-star, Piotr Beczala, performed arias from Werner in DiDonato’s apartment living room.  You can see some of that performance here.  It reminded me of one of Lydia’s comments in a letter to Handel.  She wrote: I”I especially appreciate your inviting me to the Messiah rehearsal at Brook Street.” (p. 447) Brook Street was, of course, Handel’s home, and he frequently held rehearsals in his music room rather than at the concert halls where the public performances would occur.  If you remember from the movie The Great Mr. Handel, they include a scene in which Susannah Cibber supposedly sings the aria “Ombra mia fu” in Handel’s parlor.  That aria was sung by Xerxes, not the soprano lead, but no matter.  If you want to watch the movie, you can find it here.

From Alison:  There have, even more generally, been some creative online activities in response to this pandemic. With everyone sheltering in place and so many musicians cut off from opportunities to rehearse or perform, there have been many creative online presentations, some individual but some amazingly collaborative.  People are finding they can get together online and still make music.  You can read just one of the many articles about this recent phenomenon here.

From CD:  Yes, people have had to be resourceful in figuring out ways to keep the music going.  I know a lot of students in the music school here at IU were especially worried about practicing if they had no access to, say, a piano.  I read an interesting article in the local paper about one solution to the problem.  You can read about it here.

From Katherine:  You can tour Handel’s house on Brook Street and see where he held these rehearsals—or at least you could before this coronavirus hit.  But you can read about it here.  Until next time, everyone, stay safe. 

*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.

Helping with home crafts

Always a Folklorist, The Handel Seminar Continues, ,

Handel blog 7*

From Katherine:  I have several friends who are making surgical style facemasks for family, friends, health care workers, farm workers, or whoever needs them.  There is information online about patterns and the best kind of material, and people have been innovative in finding ways to make the masks more effective, reusable, and more comfortable. Given the overwhelming need for masks as this coronavirus has spread worldwide, I think this response is wonderful.  It reminds me of Lydia’s sewing project when she learned of the many poor or abandoned children on London’s streets.  She wrote to Handel:  “Along with a few other women here in our Upper Brook Street neighborhood, I have started a sewing circle.  We call ourselves grands-mères sans petits-enfants.  We make blankets and clothing for some of the same children your Fund supports.” (p. 346) I expect some of those blankets were actually domestic patchwork quilts of the sort that were just becoming popular in both Britain and the American colonies.

From Peter:  I’ve seen some of the fancier quilted artifacts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, but I don’t remember seeing anything that looked homemade.  I think the museum pieces were articles of clothing and probably fashioned by professional tailors.  I’m surprised Lydia knew how to make a quilt.

From Rebecca:  Patchwork quilts were fairly common throughout Britain, but they weren’t preserved in museums.  Like so much handcraft, especially that produced by women, it was regarded as unworthy of display in collections.  But, truthfully, the whole notion of collecting was still pretty new at that time.  Even fine art collections were a new kind of investment for wealthy people.

From Katherine:  I’m very lucky to have some quilts left to me by my grandmothers.  These are mostly pieced quilts, but some are appliqué.  I imagine they both would have been able to sew a bushel of facemasks in no time.  Sadly, I never learned the sewing skill from either of them.  I’ll attach a picture of some of the quilts I have so you can see why I am so delighted to have them.  They really are beautiful. 

Until next time, enjoy the photo.

*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.

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.