George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is arguably the greatest piece of participatory art ever created. Adored by millions, it is performed each year by renowned choirs and orchestras as well as by audiences singing along with the words on their cellphones.
But this work of triumphant joy was born in an age of anxiety: Britain in the early 18th century, a time of war, political conspiracy, enslavement, and conflicts over everything from the legitimacy of government to the meaning of truth.
Georgetown professor and historian Charles King unearths the astonishing backstory to a beloved classic and the tortured lives and times that made a musical monument to hope. His new book, Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel’s Messiah (Doubleday), is available for purchase.
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