5. Dinner with Handel

The US premiere of a newly-revised opera pasticcio by Stephen Pettitt (librettist) and Julian Perkins (musical arrangements and recitatives).

A reimagined delicacy that dares to ask, ‘‘what would dinner with Handel really be like?’’ Set in Handel’s London home, this chamber opera revolves around an uncomfortably intimate surprise dinner party thrown by Handel’s cook, the singer Gustavus Waltz. We imagine conversations and confrontations between Handel, rival composer Johann Christoph Pepusch, spurned diva Francesca Cuzzoni, and Handel's dearest friend, Mary Pendarves. Music by Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Arne, and Pepusch is sensitively and wittily re-texted (in English) by esteemed journalist Stephen Pettitt, with recitatives newly composed by Julian Perkins. Fast-moving, funny, and touching, this 90-minute romp explores Handel's complex personality through carefully researched and often telling references to real events. Join us for an operatic feast that serves selections of both Handel the genius, and the fallible human being, in an unusual and fascinating light.