This concert will explore the remarkable lives and music written for Handel’s ‘travesti’, mezzo-sopranos and contraltos in a world where women performing in the public eye faced enormous scrutiny, condemnation and sometimes even imprisonment. Using contemporary journals, anecdotes and drawings, Diana Moore examines these unconventional women and how they survived in this profession, alongside performances of music composed specially for them by George Frederick Handel.

In an era when women were banned in many parts of the world from appearing on stage, and their wearing of trousers considered morally corrupt, Baroque theatre revelled in featuring women in ‘trouser roles’. Female singers who specialised in these roles faced Society’s condemnation, suspicion but also fascination, often leading lives with the kind of independence that conventional women would only dream of for another 200 years. Handel composed ‘travesti’ roles for women in almost all his operas.

With music from operas including Agrippina, Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Orlando, Xerxes and Partenope.

Read more about Diana Moore… here

7.30pm – Norwich Central Baptist Church, Duke Street, Norwich.

From Jan 4th 2017:
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