Handel's Messiah

When Handel composed Messiah in 1741, he was in the process of transforming his English career. No longer would he try to persuade London audiences to appreciate his beloved Italian operas. Instead, with his librettist Charles Jennens, he set about inventing a new kind of “sacred entertainment,” the English oratorio. Unlike Handel’s other oratorios, though, Messiah is not a sacred drama with a freshly-written libretto; instead, it’s a kind of musical sermon entirely made up of quotations from both Old and New Testaments, meditating on the story of Jesus as the Chosen One, or the Messiah. Handel uses a huge range of styles to capture the breadth of these quotations, including a French opera overture, English-style anthem choruses, Italian opera arias, and even the angry crowd-choruses of the Lutheran tradition like those in Bach’s Passions.

By now, Messiah has become one of our most familiar cultural landmarks. The pleasure of returning to this masterpiece is that there is always more for us to hear, and discover, in this wonderfully complex score.

Cantata Singers will present the complete oratorio under music director Noah Horn at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, with Baroque orchestra and soloists drawn from the ensemble.

Please visit https://boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=cantata-singers&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id= for additional information and to purchase tickets.

https://www.cantatasingers.org/messiah