'Hallelujah': New Mexico Philharmonic to play Handel's 'Messiah' in three performances

Dec. 4—If the holidays are here, it must be time for the "Messiah."

The New Mexico Philharmonic will play Handel's masterpiece in three performances: Friday, Dec. 8, and Saturday, Dec. 9, at the First United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, and on Sunday, Dec. 10, at Rio Rancho's V. Sue Cleveland High School.

This version differs from the stodgy, overwhelming piece many of us grew up with, conductor Bradley Ellingboe said.

"We're doing it in a buoyant, joyous kind of way," he said. "The ones we grew up with were plodding and massive. It's really full of dance tunes."

To capture that sense of fun, Ellingboe turned back to copies of the original score penned by the composer in 1741.

"I think there are new things to discover," he added. "I've done this piece literally 100 times, if not more."

"Messiah" is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later.

The audience swelled to a record 700, as ladies had heeded pleas by management to wear dresses "without hoops" in order to make "room for more company."

Handel wrote it in just 24 days.

"Handel was very famous by the time he wrote this," Ellingboe said. "Someone asked him to write a piece to benefit an orphanage in Dublin. It was an immediate hit. He only performed it four times."

The composer changed the piece depending on the musicians available. If there was a great tenor in Dublin but a great soprano in London, he would give the aria to her.

"When I was growing up, virtually everybody used a different edition that had a bunch of mistakes in it," Ellingboe said. "It was a big American publication that everybody got a hold of. Just because it was printed, doesn't mean it was accurate. Then it was standardized."

Then a British historian returned to the original handwritten score.

"We're trying to clean the old varnish out of this beautiful piece of wood," Ellingboe said.

The New Mexico productions will feature the Coro Lux Chamber Chorus with an orchestra of 20, with the solos drawn from the chorus.

"They are some of the best singers in the state," Ellingboe said. "They are home-grown."