Handel's Messiah

In the summer of 1741, a composer nobody quite trusted anymore shut himself in a house on Brook Street in London and did not come out for weeks. His name was George Frideric Handel. His operas had stopped selling. His rivals were smiling. Some of his friends had quietly begun to say he was finished. Then a friend handed him a stack of pages, a story told entirely in words from the Bible, and Handel began to write as if something were chasing him.

A word before the story begins: this performance presents all of Part the First, followed by the Hallelujah Chorus. You will hear the whole first act of Handel's drama — the waiting, the promise, and the child — and then, as the evening's great finish, the music that brings audiences to their feet all over the world.

He finished in about twenty-four days. Servants said he barely ate. Stories say he once sat staring at his own page with tears running down his face, saying he had seen heaven open. Nobody can prove that. But the music will make you understand why people believed it.

The Night Dublin Held Its Breath

Handel did not take it to London first. He took it to Dublin, and on a spring evening in 1742 a crowd packed into a music hall so tightly that the ladies were asked to leave their wide hoop skirts at home, and the gentlemen their swords, just to fit another hundred people through the door. The concert raised money for prisoners and hospitals. The papers said the music was "the most finished piece of music" the city had ever heard. Something had begun that would not stop for almost three hundred years.

Three Acts in One Evening

You do not need to know any Latin, or any Bible verses, or what an oratorio is. Think of Messiah as a story in three parts. In the first, a long, dark waiting, and then a child. In the second, a great and painful drama, and then an extraordinary burst of joy. In the third, a quiet promise that the story does not end. Handel never names a hero. He lets the singers tell you, and the orchestra, and the choir, who step in at the most thrilling moments like a crowd surging forward.

The Moment the King Stood Up

At the end of the second part comes the piece you already know. It is called "Hallelujah." It starts with four short notes, almost like a doorbell, and then the whole choir and the trumpets arrive at once. The tradition says that when King George II first heard it in London, he rose to his feet, and the entire audience had to stand with him. Historians argue about whether it really happened. But today, in concert halls all over the world, the audience still stands. When you do, you will be joining a very old ritual, and you will understand it at once. You will not want to sit down.

Before You Come

There is nothing to prepare. The words are in English, and they are printed in the program, so you can follow along. Listen for the trumpets, which Handel saves for the most important moments, and for the quiet notes between the big ones. If you can, bring someone who has never been to a choir concert at Christmas. The soloists and choir will be announced before the concert.