For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
I’m performing in the chorus of Handel’s magnificent oratorio Messiah this weekend (Dec 3rd at 3pm in Reynolds Auditorium, for those interested). The community group that sponsors didn’t perform it last year, but I’ve done it every other year I’ve been in Winston Salem since I started graduate school. And moreso this year than any of the years previously (mostly cause I haven’t been doing any choral singing for over a year now), I’m so grateful for this chance to sing a masterpiece with other people who love Messiah as much as I do, with really great soloists and instrumentalists who do the work justice in performance.
We’ve had our rehearsals this week with the guest conductor who’s come in from NYC (he’s the choral conductor for the NYC Opera), and it’s amazing how much physical work actually goes into singing something like this. I was exhausted after a 2.5 hour rehearsal last night, and in pretty much the same place tonight after another one. But there are times in the middle of rehearsal where you can catch these glimpses of the genius of Handel, things that no matter how many times you’ve sung it will suddenly catch you by surprise; the power of a lyric you hear in a different way, or the clarity of an ascending line from the sopranos that brings a deep emotional response.
And every year, I’m amazed at the poignancy of his description of Christ’s birth, and the vitriole and anguish expressed in the Passion section, and the joy found in the Resurrection. Handel’s choruses describing the trial and death of Jesus are full of text-painting, with chorusmembers representing at one point the angry mob calling for Christ’s crucifixion (‘He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him’), and at another the whips during His beatings (‘The chastisment of our peace was upon Him’). Our guest conductor this year describes Messiah as more opera than oratorio and I think I agree with him – singing it, you feel like you’re living in the middle of ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, not just standing by watching it.
And it’s a good reminder as I kick off the busy holiday season, that beyond the ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’ platitudes, there is this: that Christ’s arrival on eath as a baby, while miraculous and glorious on its own, fits in the much larger scheme of God’s plan for redemption, and that His birth would mean little to us without his subsequent death on the cross. And that, friends, is what Messiah means to me.