“Messiah” (most of it, plus 2 RDCVs*)

I knew that the TSO Chorus was doing Handel’s Messiah at the end of the year, and, being familiar with the work and suspecting that the shortage of tenors that had seen me invited to do Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette might also apply even for the better known Messiah, I let the powers that be know that I was interested in singing, and I got a “yes” in response (an extended “yes”, that applies into next year too 🙂 ). Thence followed a whole bunch of rehearsals, and towards the end there was a bit of a twist: instead of singing in S, A, T, B blocks, we started to mix ourselves up, so that we were paired with another person from our voice part but then were dispersed among everyone else. This made a huge difference to the balance and quality of the sound … and also meant that we had to be much more self-sufficient as singers instead of letting others of our voice parts “carry” us. The end result was a sold-out performance with the full orchestra which apparently sounded really good.

The following weekend we took a cut down version on tour to two of Tasmania’s regional areas: Cygnet (which was close enough that Mum and Dad could come and see it) and Campbell Town (which I took a friend and her family to, as the Cygnet concert sold out before we got tickets). This time we were accompanied by a quartet and a synthesised organ continuo and, again, both concerts sold out and were well-received. It was fun to “go on tour” and get to know some of the choristers better (I already knew a few from Loose Canon) and start to feel more a part of the group.

And I always enjoy “doing” Messiah because of its meaning and the fact that it’s just a great piece of music.

*RDCV = Readers’ Digest Condensed version (the Readers’ Digest publishing company used to produce “condensed” versions of classic novels, to save having to read every last word of Dickens or Hugo)