Alexander’s Feast is a secular choral work with music by George Frideric Handel set to a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton.

Hamilton adapted his libretto from John Dryden’s ode Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music (1697) which had been written to celebrate Saint Cecilia’s Day. Jeremiah Clarke (whose score is now lost) set the original ode to music.

Handel composed the music in January 1736, and the work received its premiere at the Covent Garden Theatre, London on 19 February 1736. Handel revised the music for performances in 1739, 1742 and 1751. The work describes a banquet held by Alexander the Great and his mistress Thais in the captured Persian city of Persepolis, during which the musician Timotheus sings and plays his lyre, arousing various moods in Alexander until he is finally incited to burn the city down in revenge for his Greek soldiers killed in the Persian wars.

Not a religious piece, but it has many beautiful melodies and sections might even be described as “easy listening” – the purists among you might not like that description though!

Some members choose not to sing in the summer concert because of previous engagements, usually holidays, but the rest still manage to produce a good sound and to practise diligently for our last concert of the season before we re-assemble in September.

All enquiries about joining us should still be directed to [email protected]