"Messiah"

Yesterday afternoon we went with Michele, Chuck and Duane to hear the community chorus performance of "Messiah." A friend of theirs was the director this year. I used to sing in these performances years (decades) ago before I let my voice go to waste, and it was always very interesting to me to see how the director each year would approach the work - what portions would be chosen, what style we were going for. This was a very refreshing take from this particular director's extensive background in Baroque music and direct experience with this work. He came out not in a tux but in a simple black shirt and pants, and having already written his remarks in the program, he basically nodded to the audience and said "Let's do it." He presented the work as a light chamber piece rather than a choral work, with minimal orchestra. The fact that 140 volunteer singers make up the chorus is something you can't change as far as making this a smaller endeavor, so his inspiration was to bring in a group of 12 elite singers to do all the heavy lifting. Thus certain of the pieces, like "For unto us a child is born," was sung by the small group with the chorus only coming in on the easy crescendos of "Wonderful, Counselor..."

Even the solos didn't sound as ponderous as I've experienced them in the past. Near the end, I wept during "I know that my Redeemer liveth" - that was the first time I've ever heard that aria sung as a plain-spoken profession of faith in a time of personal devastation, exactly as it is in the book of Job. It was tremendously touching and the tears are coming to my eyes even now.

When we all stood to sing the Hallelujah chorus, I'd been thinking throughout that if I'd been a chorister this year, I might have been alternately relieved and a little disappointed at all the stuff I didn't get to sing because it was given to the master singers, when just as in response to that thought, we got to the end and the chorus continued without us through the full "Amen!" - I don't think any of the performances I've been in have used that part, and it was almost redemptive for the choristers - like, oh yeah, we didn't sing the hard stuff? well listen to this!

(edited to add): I forgot to say that this director (Andrew Sweeney, who is also an organist, operatic vocalist, composer, etc. - what a tremendous talent) rewrote the "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion" for three sopranos instead of as a solo, and it was so refreshing to hear something familiar yet very new as the voices tumbled over each other, as though a group of sisters had heard the most wonderful news and all reacted at once.