Ruth Smith
speaker
216 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 7 May
Ruth Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
But this performance in Dublin for charity absolutely won everybody over, as well, of course, as the quality of the music and the pathos of Mrs Kibber's singing.
Absolutely.
The dress rehearsal was so crowded that the newspaper advertisements for the actual premiere asked the ladies to come without hoops in their dresses and the gentlemen without swords so that there would be more space for the charitably inclined.
Well, there were rave reviews, one of which said, ''Words are wanting to express the exquisite delight it afforded to the admiring, crowded audience.
The sublime, the grand and the tender adapted to the most elevated and moving words.''
conspired to transport and charm the ravished heart and ear.
With respect, he didn't buy the house in Mayfair.
He rented it.
He never bought it.
And as for him being broke, this is a myth about why he had to go to Dublin with creditors snapping at his heels.
And yes, putting on a whole season of performances, which is the way one did it then, walk-up tickets hadn't really been invented yet, was very expensive.
So between £12,000 and £16,000, that's a lot.
However, Handel had an annuity from the Crown of £600 a year.
which we should multiply by 200.
So he's got £120,000 a year coming in.
However, that is not nearly enough to have in reserve for a whole opera season.
So yes, he couldn't afford to hire theatre.
It's just unlike anything.
Picking up on what Donald has said, over 60% of the verses that Jennings uses from the Bible are from the Old Testament, much richer in imagery than the New Testament.
And Handel was a genius at evoking emotion through his setting of imagery.
Showing 61–80 of 216 · page 4 of 11
← Previous
Next →