View from the Green Room: Handel's magnificent Messiah at St John's
Handel's Messiah being performed at St John's Church.
Recently formed Notable Works intends bringing local, national and international musicians together for large-scale musical work to Waterford. Where better to start than Handel’s magnificent Messiah at a packed St. John’s Church in Parnell Street on Sunday last under the baton of Waterford Musical Director Dr Kevin O’Carroll.
A packed attendance showed its appreciation with an immediate and well-deserved standing ovation.
From start to finish, this was quite simply an electric performance of what is probably the most famous and well-known of all oratorio.
This is a big sing and it’s a long sing that lasts the best part of three hours.
Part of the charm of this oratorio lies in the comparative simplicity of the composition. Originally written for modest vocal and simple orchestration, there’s always a feeling about the Handel Messiah that we could all sing it if we only knew the dots.
The narrative of the oratorio is also crystal clear and follows a simple story-line of Nativity, Passion and Resurrection that is hammered out in the largely bold statements from a compilation of extracts from the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible, and from the Psalms included in the Book of Common Prayer.
The popularity of the massive choruses and orchestras actually came later as extracts were routinely used by church choirs and amateur musical societies at festivals and cathedrals around Britain and Ireland. When attendances routinely joined in the famous Hallelujah chorus, Handel had the very first flashmob!
Another part of the charm of the Messiah is the use of the key of D Major, the key usually associated with light and glory, for significant moments in the piece. The use of D Major for the trumpet movements with their uplifting messages, coupled with the triumphant ending in the same key, sends us all out in a celebratory mood.
Affirmation, celebration and eternal values are repeated over and over leaving the listener with the absolute conviction that man is redeemed through the death and resurrection of the Messiah.
Doubt in eternal salvation is never even entertained and while the story of the Messiah belongs to the New Testament, this story is told with prophetic texts from the Old Testament.
Singing throughout is outstanding. Róisín O’Grady is a spirit-lifting soprano, Megan Butler is an expressive mezzo, and Jonathan Miller is a sensitive tenor, while Eoin Power’s base is comforting and reassuring.
Choruses are sensitive and their dramatic power delivers a narrative that really showcases the power of language.
The Waterford Concert Orchestra with leader Eimear Heeley captures all of the textured and layered entries of this baroque masterpiece and the standout numbers all leap off the page: ‘Lift up your heads’… ’I know that my Redeemer Liveth’… ’The trumpet shall sound’… ’Hallelujah’ and, of course, that final magnificent ‘Amen’. And the practice of standing for the much-anticipated Hallelujah chorus is honoured.
Handel’s first performance of The Messiah took place in The Great Music Hall in Fishamble St., Dublin on April 13, 1742, and raised €400 for three different charities. Seven hundred people attended the premiere on April 13. So that the largest possible audience could be admitted to the concert, gentlemen were requested to remove their swords, and ladies were asked not to wear hoops in their dresses. As a result Dublin’s Mercer’s Hospital and the Charitable Infirmary received €127 each and 142 indebted prisoners were released.
The years have not diminished the power of Handel’s oratorio and a packed attendance gave a well-deserved standing ovation to the performance.
