Dublin, 13 April 1742. Buster walks into a packed music hall on Fishamble Street to hear something nobody alive today has ever heard: Handel's Messiah, brand new.
This time the trip is no accident. Buster is a music lover, and of everywhere in history the vortex could take him, he's chosen the premiere of the most famous choral work ever written. Maya and Dan unpack the episode and the astonishing true history behind it: why Messiah premiered in Dublin rather than London, the charity concert that freed men from debtors' prison, the notice asking ladies to leave their hoops at home and gentlemen their swords, a shopping trip through a real Dublin neighbourhood called Hell, and a supper table shared with Handel and a very grumpy Jonathan Swift.
Watch the full episode, Buster Goes Back: The Messiah Premiere, at youtube.com/@BusterGoesBack and get updates at bustergoesback.com.