Handel's Last Chance
| Handel's Last Chance | |
|---|---|
| Created by | David Devine Richard Mozer |
| Screenplay by | Marlene Matthews |
| Story by | David Devine Richard Mozer |
| Directed by | Milan Cheylov |
| Starring | Leon Pownall Tod Fennell Gerard Parkes Seana McKenna |
| Country of origin | Canada Slovakia |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Cinematography | David Perrault |
| Editor | Michael Pacek |
| Running time | 51 minutes |
| Production company | Devine Entertainment |
| Original release | |
| Network | HBO |
| Release | 9 December 1996 |
Handel's Last Chance is a 1996 television film created by David Devine and Richard Mozer for HBO Original Films of New York and directed by Milan Cheylov. A Canadian-Slovakian co-production, it stars Leon Pownall, Tod Fennell, Gerard Parkes, and Seana McKenna. It follows the fictional background of the premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Messiah in 1742, where a Dublin street boy aids the composer with his singing talent, and the composer in turn changes the boy's life by bringing out his conscience and self-confidence.
The film is the last instalment in Devine Entertainment's six-film series The Composers' Specials, after Bizet's Dream, Bach's Fight for Freedom, Strauss: The King of 3/4 Time, Liszt's Rhapsody, and Rossini's Ghost.