Following their sell-out 2024 concert, the Olivier Award-winning Irish Baroque Orchestra return to Snape with a performance of Handel’s glorious Alexander’s Feast.

This dramatic “ode with music”, first performed in 1736, was so popular that it became one of the most performed of Handel’s works during his lifetime. It tells the story of how the legendary musician Timotheus sang at a feast held by Alexander the Great and his consort Thaïs to celebrate victory over King Darius and the Persians. So great was Timotheus’ skill in song and on lyre that he aroused powerful emotions in Alexander, eventually stirring him into a vengeful frenzy and driving him to utterly destroy the city of Persepolis. Handel’s setting of Alexander’s Feast is full of beautiful arias and rousing choruses – and is a perfect tribute to the power of music.

The Irish Baroque Orchestra, led by Peter Whelan, is celebrated as Ireland’s flagship period-instrument orchestra and delivers top-quality historically-informed performances across Ireland and abroad. In this concert they re-recreate the three-part version of Alexander’s Feast that Handel made specially for performances in Dublin in 1742, complete with the interpolation of an organ concerto between the sections in true 18th-century style. A thrilling conclusion to Summer at Snape 2025, fresh from the BBC Proms.

Download programme notes.

Irish Baroque Orchestra
Hilary Cronin soprano
Hugh Cutting countertenor
Stuart Jackson tenor
Peter Whelan director