Anna Seward in Lichfield - late 18th Century
from Letter from Anna Seward to Miss Helen Williams, 25 August 1785, page 76:
I write to you, dear Helen, amidst the bustle of those feminine preparations, which necessarily precede the design of attending an harmonic festival at Manchester, where the abbey drums are to thunder, Mara exhibit vocal miracles, and, what is much more to the genuine lovers of musical pathos and energy, our friend Saville is to open the Messiah, and take all the principal tenor and contra-tenor songs. He unites poetic taste, and the vivid emotions of a feeling heart, and of an high and kindling spirit, to a rich, extensive, and powerful voice, and the most perfect … more >>
Anna Seward, Letter from Anna Seward to Miss Helen Williams, 25 August 1785. In Archibald Constable (ed.), Letters of Anna Seward: Written Between the Years 1784 and 1807, volume 1 (Edinburgh, 1811), p. 76. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1535624916555 accessed: 1 September, 2024
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Arias from Messiah
written by George Frideric Handel |
performed by John Saville |
Experience Information
Date/Time | late 18th Century |
Medium | live |
Notes
Although Seward writes generally about hearing John Saville sing, she would most often have heard him in Lichfield, where he was a lay vicar in the cathedral choir, and a close friend and neighbour whom she saw on an almost daily basis.