Dublin Handel Festival

1685 is one of those dates that every music student knows: the birth year of three incomparable composers, JS Bach, George Frideric Handel and Domenico Scarlatti. Less familiar are the years of their deaths, but Handel actually outlived the other two, shuffling off this mortal coil at the ripe old age of 74 on 14 April 1759 - exactly 250 years ago. Dublin, and specifically Temple Bar, has a special connection with Handel - it's where his most famous work Messiah received its first performance, on 13 April 1742 at Neale's Musick Hall on Fishamble Street. So double reasons to celebrate, and Temple Bar Cultural Trust are pulling out all the stops for this year's Dublin Handel Festival which runs from April 13-19.

There's a rake of free activities, walks, talks and workshops, lots of concerts and of course the annual Messiah in the Street on Mon 13 @1pm, a singalong version with Our Lady's Choral Society at that very spot on Fishamble Street. OLCS turn up again at the NCH on Tue 14 for the Handel 250 Commemoration Concert, the choir of Christ Church Cathedral give a full performance of Messiah on Thur 16, and you can also hear the Guinness Choir singing Solomon, the David Rees-Williams Trio giving baroque music a jazz makeover, Opera Theatre Company performing Acis and Galatea, counter-tenor Graham Joseph singing popular arias, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra playing the famous Water Music. And as an extra special treat, Joseph O'Connor has written a new play, Handel's Crossing, a theatrical re-imagining of the great man's arrival in Dublin in 1742 for that world premiere, which will be brought to life by Fishamble Theatre Company aboard the Jeannie Johnston. More info @ www.templebar.ie