Pinchgut Opera strips back Handel’s Messiah with stunning effect
Pinchgut Opera’s The Messiah takes listeners back to Handel and Dublin with stunning effect.
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When I was at school our music teacher was also the organist and choir master at the local church and at the end of every year we would sing the Christmas section of Handel’s Messiah.
Since then I have witnessed several performances of the great oratorio, often with massed choirs and large orchestras – one with a signer on stage for the hard of hearing, another costumed and choreographed to represent four famous paintings from the Baroque.
So I was intrigued by Erin Helyard and Pinchgut’s production which strips it back to the relatively humble origins of its premier in Dublin in 1742. With just 12 singers and 16 members of the Orchestra of the Antipodes, led by Matthew Greco, this performance, beautifully staged with a striking backdrop and Damien Cooper’s clever lighting, was a revelation. The singers – three each of sopranos, mezzos, tenors and basses – doubled as soloists and chorus and the fugal harmonies and counterpoint were clearer and more transparent as a result.
The same could be said of the orchestra of strings and chamber organ, directed by Helyard on harpsichord, joined by two natural trumpets and timpani for some of the larger scale movements, including the famous Hallelujah Chorus for which, by tradition, the audience stands.
As in Handel’s day the singers and concertmaster Greco were given leeway to improvise some discreet ornamentation and this, together with the scaled back score, gave the familiar material a fresh and more buoyant than usual feel. Helyard also let the various arias, choruses and recitatives flow on without breaks for applause.
There were several standout solo moments. Basses Edward Grint and Andrew O’Connor were superb in their arias from the Christmas section, Grint’s “For he is like a refiner’s fire” surging with power and O’Connor ominous for “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light”. Tenors Louis Hurley, Jacob Lawrence and Sebastian Maclaine also impressed.
Soprano Miriam Allan was radiantly joyful in “I know that my Redeemer liveth” and Ashlyn Tymms’s emotional and superbly projected handling of “He was despised” was memorable. Leanne Sullivan’s trumpet sounded sweetly and truly in the famous bass aria of the third part, sung with burnished power by Grint, and the glorious final chorus Worthy is the lamb, with its powerful fugal Amen, brought the three hours to a majestic close.
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine The Messiah being done any better than this.
DETAILS
• CONCERT Pinchgut Opera: Handel’s Messiah
• WHERE City Recital Hall
• WHEN December 3
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