Hallelujah from the Ruins

In 1741, George Frideric Handel was a broken man. Four years earlier, a stroke had left his right hand partially paralyzed. His London operas were failing. His debts were mounting. At fifty-six, it seemed his career was finished. Then a friend invited him to set to music a libretto drawn entirely from Scripture — passages about the promised Messiah, the suffering servant, the risen Lord.…