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(Easter Portions)
The Palomar
Chorale with
For more information call (760)-744-1150 ext. 2453 or email theater@palomar.edu.
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(Easter Portions)
The Palomar
Chorale with
For more information call (760)-744-1150 ext. 2453 or email theater@palomar.edu.
|
|||||||||||||
Handel’s
Messiah was first performed at the Musick Hall in Dublin on April 13,
1742. So that seven hundred people might be accommodated in a hall
designed for six hundred, women were asked to come to the performance
without hoops and gentlemen without swords. A great audience was
attracted thanks to the fame of the composer and his assurance that all
profits were for charity. The choir consisted of members of the choirs of
both Dublin Cathedrals, and during breaks in the performance Mr. Handel
played several movements of organ concertos with the orchestra. And yes,
it is true that Handel wrote the entire oratorio in only 24 days!
The libretto
of Messiah is unusual among the Handel oratorios in that its text is
non-dramatic, wholly scriptural, and on a New Testament subject. The
soloists do not represent any particular biblical character, and the
chorus appears in many guises- as the believers, the angry crowd, or the
observers. The text was compiled by a friend of Handel, Charles Jennens.
Except for some verses from St. Luke’s Gospel, this libretto is a
representation or meditation on Jesus as the Messiah, and as such can
withstand being truncated in a manner not possible with a dramatic
narrative. 
Along with the
overture, almost all of the second and third parts of Messiah will be
heard in today’s performance. The movements of Part Two deal with the
passion and resurrection of Christ in three general scenes: a general
description of suffering by their deeds; the specifics of scorn, death,
and triumph; and the victory and spreading of the Gospel, and dealing with
unbelievers. Part Three is devoted to thanksgiving, the day of judgment,
and the final overthrow of Death.
