The Unanswered Questions: Handel and the Royal African Company
How do listeners today reconcile the joy of Handel's "Messiah" with the composer's involvement with the Royal African Company and the transatlantic slave trade? Musicians and scholars examine how " and why " audiences may or may not separate the sanctity of art from the morality of its creator. The panelists are Handel scholar and Professor Emeritus at MIT Ellen Harris; ethnomusicologist and Juilliard professor Fred…