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by Doug Koop
A meaningful relationship with the
Messiah will inevitably become a personal story. This is almost
as true of George Frideric Handel’s magnificent musical as it is
of the Messiah Jesus Christ, whose execution and resurrection
Christians celebrate each year at Easter time.
Divine majesty and mystery flow marvelously
together in the great oratorio composed in a mere three weeks
between August 22 and September 14 in 1741.
The masterpiece was first performed in April
1742 as a charity benefit. A decade later Handel established a
practice of making the Messiah the last oratorio of his annual
Lent season (as close to Easter as possible) at the Covent
Garden Theatre in London, and repeating it a month or so later
at the chapel of a hospital he supported.
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