Handel

For over a decade, he failed.  Time and time again.   Rather miserably.  "After returning to England in early autumn 1740, he completed what proved to be his last two operas, both of which failed ignominiously on the stage."  Imeneo closed after only two performances.  Deidamia, after three.

He withdrew from public life and seldom left his house.

Rumors began to circulate that he was finished in London.  Some held that his health had given way; others, that he had died.  Nothing definite is known of his plans during the early months of 1741.  However, in the summer [after more than a decade of failure], he suddenly sprang back to creative life, inspired by a small book of biblical texts.  Handel's imagination was fired, and he began composing on August 22.  Stories have it that he shut himself in his room, eschewing sleep and leaving food untouched, while he frantically penned his new work.  Twenty-four days later, on September 14, he emerged with the completed score of Messiah.  "I did think I did see heaven before me and the great God Himself!" he muttered to a servant.

First performed in Dublin in 1741, it took another nine years before his hometown of London embraced the oratorio.  So for nearly twenty years, and possibly more, Handel felt mostly failure in his hometown.  Year after year after year.

Yet over 250 years later, Handel's Messiahs remained one of the best-known and most widely performed of all musical works.  It is the only important piece of Baroque music with an unbroken performance tradition from the time of its creation to our own day.

A story of perseverance.  Grit.  Inspiration.  Never giving up.

Glad I read it.

From the Notes on the Program from last night's performance by the National Symphony Orchestra of Handel's Messiah