Book Club: April 6, 2025, 2-4pm, – Fellows and External Fellows – Zoom only event

April 6, 2026, 2-4 pm – Fellows and External Fellows

Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times that Made Handel’s “Messiah” by Charles King (2024)      

Discussion Leaders: Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon

George Frideric Handel’s (1741) Messiah is an oratorio that has been called “the greatest piece of participatory art ever created.” Choirs and orchestras perform it annually at Christmas and Easter, with audiences singing along. As the subtitle of the book suggests, Charles King delves into Handel’s creation of this monumental work within the social and cultural context of the “Troubled Times” of Enlightenment Britain, with its philosophical and political conflicts, royal intrigues, and military and imperial ambitions. The author focuses this broader history on a series of ”Desperate Lives”: a depressive dissenter stirred to action by an ancient prophecy; an actress plagued by an abusive husband and public scorn; an Atlantic sea captain and penniless philanthropist; and an African Muslim man held captive in the American colonies and hatching a dangerous plan for getting back home. But at the centre of the story is Handel, the German-born, Italian-trained composer, brought to England in 1712 by (the German) King George I. When he created Messiah, Handel was in early middle-age, not terribly healthy, and deeply concerned about his continuing success in a difficult London theatre scene. How a “masterpiece of hope” was born out of this particular “Desperate” life at the particular “Troubled” time is the story Every Valley tells.  (Available in all formats; 351 pages).

The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/FkRmp4zKkA

The deadline to register is the Monday morning the day of the event at 8 am. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizer, Mary Jane Ashley at maryjane.ashley@utoronto.ca.