Handel: A Life With Friends

Wednesday 1 July 2015 – Sunday 10 January 2016

What was it like to live next to the great composer Handel? Who would call at his house? Who did he visit? In this new exhibition, Handel scholar Ellen Harris will explore the composer’s domestic life at 25 Brook Street and the many friends and neighbours who visited him at the new, fashionable residential district called ‘May Fair’.

Handel’s music brought this disparate group of men and women together, as amateur performers in their own homes and as audiences at performances of his operas and oratorios.

With important loans from national, local and private collections, the exhibition will offer a rare glimpse into the public and private lives of some of Handel’s closest friends.

Ellen Harris’s new book George Frideric Handel: A Life With Friends (published by Norton) which inspired this exhibition is available to purchase from the Handel House Museum shop, priced £25.

Watch our latest film exploring Handel’s friends and neighbourhood presented by Ellen Harris