For my birthday celebration (otherwise known as Birthmass because of the proximity to Christmas) I went with Mr. Bunny to see Handel's Messiah at the Kennedy Center.
The National Symphony Orchestra and Washington Choral did a great job. I learned a few things about Handel's Messiah and thought I'd share.
1. The Messiah is actually 53 individual numbers. It is rare to hear all 53 sections and Handle himself picked and chose among the sections for different occasions. (Our performance took about 2 and a half hours.)
2. Is there a "real" Messiah. Nope, any way you cut it, you get the Messiah. Even Handel mixed it up.
3. When the Messiah premiered in Dublin, the proceeds went to three charitable organizations. This is why if you go to hear the Messiah at the NSO there are volunteers from the Capital Area Food Bank taking donations. (I knew I liked that Handel fellow.)
You just learn something new every day, now don't you?
Merry Christmas.
2 comments:
Did you go to the Saturday night show? I heard they went ahead with it. We (Choral Arts) cancelled our Saturday Christmas concert but did ours on Sunday.
BTW, no matter how many times I sing "Messiah," that chorus always sounds to me like "Oh, we like sheep!"
I thought they were saying, Feed my sheep.
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