In 1723, the composer George Frideric Handel moved into a new built house on Brook Street in Mayfair, London. He would live there for 36 years, dying in his own bed at the age of 74. From 1723, all of his music, beginning with the opera Giulio Cesare and including Messiah and all his great oratorios, was composed in this house. Handel rehearsed his singers in his upstairs music room, attracting friends and neighbors who listened. The maestro even sold his music from his front parlor. Besides being a nexus for his compositions, Handel also hosted dinners at Brook Street and musicales—reciprocating evenings in the homes of his friends—and displayed his art collection in his home. Professor Emeritus (MIT) Ellen Harris will trace George Frideric Handel’s footsteps and activities during his life on Brook Street in London.

Ellen T. Harris is Class of 1949 Professor Emeritus at MIT and Visiting Professor at The Juilliard School. Her work includes the award-winning books George Frideric Handel: A Life with Friends (Norton, 2014) and Handel as Orpheus: Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas (Harvard, 2001). Her research on Handel’s finances won the Westrup Prize in 2004. She has performed with John Williams and the Boston Pops and sung the National Anthem at Fenway Park. She is currently preparing a book on performing Handel’s operas.

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