Joyful Noise

George Frederick Handel’s Messiah is known throughout the world as one of the greatest and most miraculous religious compositions of all time. What the world doesn’t know, however, is that the backstory of the Messiah is just as miraculous as its music. Before composing the Messiah, Handel was in desperate straits; he was in debt, out of favor with the King, and religious leaders of the time were calling his works blasphemous. His misfortunes were in many ways conjoined with those of Susannah Cibber, a famous actress singer whose reputation was destroyed when she gave birth to a child that was not her husband’s. Both of their lives seem ruined beyond repair, but as the Messiah is written by Handel and performed by Susannah, both find redemption, albeit in different ways.