The KSO's highly
successful Classical Christmas concert, inaugurated last November,
returns this coming Sunday at the Bijou Theatre at 2:30. I wouldn't
be surprised if the concert was sold out; as of last Friday, there
were only single seats available on the main floor. Our guests will
be the Pellissippi State Variations vocal ensemble, and all will be
led by new music director Aram Demirjian.
Works performed include Overture to a
Merry Christmas (a mash-up of Mozart's Overture to The
Marriage of Figaro and Joy to the World), Bizet's
Farandole, selections from The Nutcracker, and music by
Gustav Holst, as well as selections from the Messiah.
Handel's Messiah is the go-to
work for showing off a chorus and an orchestra around the holidays.
Okay, I admit it; we are show-offs, but we'll be tempering our
show-offiness by only presenting the overture (Sinfonia) and
the choruses And the Glory of the Lord and Hallelujah-
(the entire work takes up
2-1/2 hours).
After taking a
Messiah trivia quiz, I learned some interesting facts.
Throughout his life, Handel refused to accept any money from the
performances of Messiah. He refused because he felt that he
did not deserve it. The oratorio's first performance was presented in
Dublin on April 13, 1742. In order to increase the capacity of the
concert hall, men were asked to leave their dress swords at home and
women were asked to not wear farthingales (hoopskirts). Although the
Dublin premier was very successful, the Messiah received a
poor reception in London because of religious objections to the use
of a sacred text in a theater. Our performance will be “co-ed,”
but in Handel's day, the orchestra and chorus for Messiah were
significantly smaller than those with which we are used to seeing it
performed today. The chorus was only 20 singers and they were all
male. Soprano and alto parts were sung by boys and castrati. Here are links to a couple of trivia quizzes...
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