Handel’s Duels
Handel’s Duels
Ten characters, nine tales, eight pieces. Handel’s Duels is a vibrant mixture of theatre and music inspired by commedia dell’Arte. Each character in Handel Duels dramatizes a story from Handel’s life and illustrates the tale in music. Why did Handel hide a clavichord in the attic? How did a button save his life? Why did a singer nearly fly out the window? Why did Handel chase the carriage? What was the duel with Scarlatti about? How did Handel recover from a nervous breakdown?
Geoffrey Thomas created Handel’s Duels for the Handel Festival in Göttingen. With changes of costume, voice and movement, he fashions nine different characters from Handel’s life, including Handel’s father and brother, Scarlatti and Signora Cuzzoni, the great prima donna. Each character provides a different perspective on the composers life. Geoffrey performs compositions by Handel and Scarlatti to resonate with the narrative.
Brocade Frock Coat and Wig
by Ursula Koyer Hess, Göttinger Tageblatt, 17 May 2005
“ Hallelujah!” With what is surely George Frideric Handel’s most famous song of rejoicing on his lips a wonderfully-dressed man entered the small hall of the Holborn House in Göttingen. Nearly 50 children and their parents awaited him there full of excitement. With his resplendent brocade frock coat, a lace-work jabot around his neck, silk knee trousers and a powdered wig on his head one could almost imagine that the master himself had come to the festival in Göttingen.
The little ones in the public are apparently not completely sure. Naturally, the older ones know better. It is Geoffrey Thomas come to tell them something about Handel’s life. Few among them know, however, that the American harpsichordist now lives in Budapest. There he works as the founder and artistic director of a baroque orchestra dedicated to the performance of early music on historical instruments.
Unrestrained Musicality Because he has lived and worked in many countries, Thomas speaks many languages. He effortlessly spices his German dialogue with French, Italian and English words, in order to bring Handel and some of his contemporaries to life again. Whether it’s Handel’s father, who initially supports his son’s irrepressible musicality with great reluctance, or Miss Buxtehude from Lübeck a cape or a sash or a lady-like lace bonnet and apron, suffice Thomas to slip into the most diverse roles to the joy of both small and large guests.
But not to fear, the music does not come up short. Thomas, performing on a reproduction of an early Christafori fortepiano, plays numerous musical inserts to best effect. Thus the children’s eyes and ears open wide, when they experience how virtuosically the not yet ten-year Handel must have performed on the organ in front of Duke Johann Adolph I. of Sachsen-Weißenfels. Perhaps one might have liked to have heard more about Handel’s time at the English court, but perhaps Thomas will tells us more, if he comes again. Hopefully he will!
