Handel's Messiah by Darlington Choral Society @ Darlington Dolphin Centre

Following on from our recent forays into more cultural performances which included Northern Opera's Faust, Jess and I forwent the Saturday TV offerings of X-Factor and Jungle shenanigans and plumped instead for Darlington Choral Society's rendition of Handel's most impressive works - The Messiah.

Staged in the Great Hall at Darlington's Dolphin Centre, the scene was set with an impressive chorus gallery, a substantial orchestra (Handel designed his Messiah to be very flexible in terms of musical accompaniment) and four leads who are well known and renowned throughout the North East.

For those who are unfamiliar with the full works, Handel wrote this in only 24 days, yet his almost constant rewriting and rearranging means it is doubtful whether he actually lived to hear his 'perfect' version performed.  In the Christian tradition, the figure of the "Messiah" or redeemer is identified with the person of Jesus, known by his followers as the Christ. Handel's Messiah has been described as a commentary on [Jesus Christ's] Nativity, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, beginning with God's promises as spoken by the prophets and ending with Christ's glorification in heaven.   The singers in the Messiah do not assume dramatic roles as they would in a traditional opera, in fact Handel wrote this with no intention to dramatise the life and teachings of Jesus Christ but more to proclaim the mystery of Godliness.  To this end, the lead performers have perhaps the hardest tasks; they must portray the awe-inspiring essence of the text being sung without a character in which to ground their delivery.

The acoustics in the great hall were surprisingly good, especially when you consider this is not a purpose built theatrical arena.  There is no natural stage and the audience sit flat to the performers (who were afforded a few feet of elevation with a small platform) yet the sound was clear, carried perfectly to the rear of the hall and, when needed, filled the huge ceiling perfectly.

Throughout many of his compositions, Handel loved to exaggerate the differences between the sopranos and the tenors/bass; he regularly used this to give his works depth and illustrate conflicts between opposing views and this is very clearly seen in his Messiah - pre and post birth, old and new beliefs, evangelists and non-believers are all given their own parts to play.

Rachel Orr and Marie Elliott as Soprano and Mezzo Soprano delivered the most beautiful of arias which cut through the night air like the most elegant of crystal glass being drawn by a whetted finger - closing ones eyes transported you back to the late 1700's, sat in a guild hall with the nations finest of dignitaries, breath held and hearts stilled as if waiting for the bestowing of manna from heaven.  Their performances dutifully delivered the evangelistic proclamations of His followers with angel's voices rejoicing greatly.

Tyler Clark and Arthur Berwick, as Tenor and Bass, were thus left to counter the ladys' unbridled optimism with the more threatening side of Him reserved for the non-believers and scorners.  The richness of their voices seemed to seep into the panelled walls as though their vocal chords were made of honeyed oak and yet they were both able to maintain the undercurrent of threat needed to portray the fear of complete power He holds.  It's safe to say that Handel really knew how to put his male parts through the performing mill - in particular his aria's written for bass regularly take one single phrase and demand 5 minutes of total vocal gymnastics which, without a character profile and no on stage acting means the performer is left naked save for his voice.

Of course, no performance of Handel's Messiah is complete without the chorus, used in the main to highlight the collective voice of the people as they begin to evangelise His coming and most memorably for the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of act 2.  There were approximately 50 people in the choir for this performance but at times the power and majesty of their delivery suggested hundreds.  The tapestry of sound which was woven by their fabulous voices is testament to the musical direction of Richard Bloodworth who cleverly positioned and directed the choir into performing multiple layers of delivery which all combined to create an enveloping blanket of sound.

Handel composed his Messiah in 1741 at a time very different from now but listening to Darlington Choral Society's performance last night was like stepping into a time capsule and being transported to the back of an 18th century Royal Palace .  Wonderful !