Dinner with Handel

It is 1733, and Gustavus Waltz, Handel’s cook and an up-and-coming bass, has become increasingly disgruntled with his overworked and self-absorbed employer. Seeking revenge, Waltz takes it upon himself to organise a mischievous dinner party at Handel’s house on Brook Street.

The guest list has been carefully chosen to antagonise the great composer. Among those invited are the widowed Mary Pendarves, Handel’s closest friend, along with two people with whom he has not been getting on particularly well: rival composer Johann Christoph Pepusch and the ageing, discarded diva Francesca Cuzzoni. A few drinks in, tempers flare, manners are forgotten, and all hell breaks loose.

This semi-staged work, conceived by librettist Stephen Pettitt, weaves together Julian Perkins’s arrangements of re-texted music from across Handel’s output with his newly composed recitatives. Drama, comedy and sentiment combine to create a dinner party not to be missed. Come and join us!