Heavenly Harmony: for 2026, the London Handel Festival ranges from oratorio & opera seria to the more intimate, including the composer's living room

The Foundling Hospital chapel where Handel presented Messiah annually

Cities change and cities develop. Which means that a festival that seeks to celebrate Handel in the city of his adoption constantly needs to reinvent itself. There are few venues left associated with Handel's original performances. Apart from Athalia in Oxford, it is no longer possible to present Handel's major operas and oratorios in the venues where they were premiered.

And back in 1978, when Denys Darlow presented the first London Handel Festival the composer's music was, itself, only known patchily and the festival has done sterling work presenting rarities, unconsidered versions and generally encouraging people to explore the composer's music.

The 2026 London Handel Festival takes place from 18 Feburary to 28 March. Under the title, Heavenly Harmony, the festival's artistic director Gregory Batsleer is presenting a celebration of the composer that ranges widely across the composers output and visits many venues that he would have known. We might not be able to stage Handel opera in one of his theatres, but the festival is drawing St George's Hanover Square, Smith Square Hall, the Charterhouse, the Foundling Museum and Handel's own living room into the fold.

In recent years, the festival has been approaching Handelian opera by staging some of his smaller works, creating its Handel Opera Studio in 2023. Last year it was an intriguing double bill of The Choice of Hercules and Apollo e Dafne. This year, for the first time in a number of years the festival is dipping its toe back into staging opera seria. An expensive business for any small festival, but opera was a large part of Handel's life and it is terrific that the festival has the confidence again to stage a major work. This year it is Tamerlano with the festival's Handel Opera Studio presenting staged performances directed by Orpha Phelan at Shoreditch Town Hall. Laurence Cummings is music director with the Academy of Ancient Music, and a cast including James Laing as Tamerlano, Benjamin Hulett as Bajazet, Nardus Williams as Asteria, Jake Ingbar as Andronico and Kitty Whately as Irene.

Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo return as ensemble in residence and they open the festival in fine style with Handel's Saul in Smith Square Hall. Handel would at least have known the building, as St John's Smith Square it was built in 1728. A strong cast includes Christopher Purves in the title role, Hugh Cutting as David, Linard Vrielink as Jonathan, Jessica Cale as Michal and Emoke Barath as Merab. Also at Smith Square, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli, amazingly making their festival debut, will be performing Handel's Ode to St Cecilia's Day and pairing it with Acis and Galatea with a cast including Carolyn Sampson and Laurence Kilsby, plus Will Thomas as Polyphemus.

On a smaller scale, the festival returns to Handel's parish church, St George's Hanover Square as Jonathan Cohen joins violinist Rachel Podger, soprano Hilary Cronin and friends for Handel's Neun Deutschen Arien alongside music by Handel's friend Telemann and great contemporary JS Bach. Still at St George's, Hilary Cronin joins Kristian Bezuidenhout and the English Concert for a programme that mixes Handel's Chandos Anthems with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

Leo Duarte and Opera Settecento have been exploring Handel's lesser known dramatic works, notably his pasticcios. This year they give the a modern-day London premiere of Handel's abandoned opera Titus L'Empéreur, creating a pasticcio with Handel's arias from the period and newly composed recitatives. They are joined by an outstanding line-up of soloists, including two recent winners of the International Handel Singing Competition, with Steffen Jespersen in the title role and Rachel Redmond as Berenice.

The Foundling Hospital no longer exists, it was demolished in the 1930s but the Foundling Museum preserves its memory and its Fine Rooms. These are the atmospheric venue for a concert from Arcangelo's young artists scheme, its awkwardly named Young Ensemblists. Directed from the harpsichord by Tom Foster they are exploring music composer by Handel and his contemporaries, Vastrucci, J.C. Smith, Corbett, Sammartini and Haym for Handel's orchestra. Another old venue that Handel would have known is Charterhouse, and there is a series of lunchtime concerts there with finalists from the Singing Competition, Ensemble Augelletti, and Ensemble Théodora.

At Handel's House in Brook Street, the Portrait Players will be presenting a pair of family concerts in Handel's own living room. At Shoreditch Town Hall, Apollo's Cabinet will be presenting a relaxed performance showcasing remarkable music from the Baroque era - deconstructing it, reinterpreting it, and reassembling it with other works to create something new

Less a concert and more a chance to hear Handel singers of the next generation, the London Handel Singing Competition runs across the festival with the gala finale on 11 March and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenement as accompanying ensemble, conducted by Steven Devine. At a totally different level, Richard Gowers will be directing a Come and Sing event which offers enthusiastic singers a rare opportunity to experience the exhilaration of performing Handel’s music with a live professional baroque orchestra. For the Handel Big Sing, children from schools across Westminster will be welcomed to St George’s Church, Hanover Square to perform with the London Handel Orchestra.

Full details from the festival website.