Exhibition Study Day: She who penetrated the heart

‘Handel was very fond of Mrs. Cibber’ wrote Burney. Why did this great fondness develop? Handel first saw her perform when she was eighteen and he forty seven, and seems to have been permanently captivated. Notoriously irascible with other singers, he patiently coached Susannah from the harpsichord, playing each phrase for her to memorize, transposing arias for her contralto range. Following her agonizing adultery trial, he gave to her the most suffering moment in Messiah; later he immortalized their friendship in Samson. It might be said that she who ‘penetrated the heart’ with her expressive performance became the muse for Handelian Oratorio. The day will be led by Helen Dymond, a lecturer at the City Literary Institute and an established authority on Handel’s life and work. Helen Dymond is a professional lecturer who has been researching Handel’s life and work for over thirty years. She supplied the research for a Channel 4 film ‘Honour, Profit and Pleasure’ starring Simon Callow in 1985 for the Handel Tercentenary, and in the same year ‘The Handel-Lover’s Chorus’ a comic arrangement of the Hallelujah Chorus was published by Thames. It was re-issued by Novello, 2009 and is still currently in print. Some scenes from her radio play ‘Handel and Susannah’ were performed in costume in 2005 at the Handel House Museum, with Julian Perkins as Handel, and Kate Manley variously playing Susannah Cibber, Francesca Cuzzoni and Kitty Clive. Her one-act play ‘Handel’s Feast’ starring David Bamber, with musical direction by Laurence Cummings, was performed in the London Handel Festival in 2009 for the composer’s 250th Memorial.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//se000508?id=EVENT460705