At ten o’clock I went to Victoria to get a train for the Crystal Palace and the Handel Festival. I found a special train going, but it was so late in starting that we did not reach the Palace till 11.30 when the doors had been open and all the best seats filled for half an hour. I was a long way from the Orchestra and on one side yet I heard all the 28 Choruses admirably. Some of the solos were almost inaudible and all sounded like faint voices coming out of a vast empty distance. Yet the duet ‘The Lord is my Strength’ between the two sopranos Madame Otto Alvsleben and Madame Lemmens Sherrington was lovely and the duet between the two basses Santley and Signor Foli ‘The Lord is a Man of War’ was grand, and Sims Reeves sang ‘The Enemy said’ as splendidly as ever. Madame Lemmens’ voice pierced like lightning. To my mind the most marvellous part of this marvellous oratorio is the Chorus describing the plague of darkness. In the thick heavy muffled music you could feel the waves of darkness coming on. << less