Handel’s Messiah has been consistently performed countless times since it’s premiere in 1742. The oratorio interprets the story of Jesus Christ through music and has become extremely well-known with its most famous song being the iconic and very recognizable Hallelujah. It would be entirely unreasonable to think that each production of The Messiah could be performed exactly the same. With each new production comes the inevitability of interpretation.
The Messiah is a holiday favorite, often performed around Christmas time. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has not been possible for The Messiah to be performed live. Some productions have found a way around this. In November 2020, for their 48th annual performance of Handel’s Messiah, the Messiah Choral Society created a virtual performance, recording themselves playing then uploading it to YouTube. December 2020, H+H also created a virtual performance, titling it Handel’s “Messiah for Our Time. It was their 167th consecutive year playing The Messiah. Throughout the video, powerful images and video clips of daily life in quarantine were played. The familiar oratorio in an unfamiliar time serves to bring comfort to everyone watching.
One virtual performance that especially stands out this year however, was Against the Grain Theater’s Messiah/Complex. With audio recorded separately and edited over video filmed in accordance with social distancing, the 80 minute film features non traditional imagery. This New York Times article details how in the production “ A gay Chinese-Canadian tenor struts through the streets of Vancouver, joyously proclaiming that “ev’ry valley shall be exalted” as the camera focuses in on his six-inch-high stiletto heels. A Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano reimagines Jesus as a Muslim woman in a head scarf. In Yukon, an Indigenous singer praises the remote snow-covered landscape in Southern Tutchone, the language of her ancestors.” co-directors Joel Ivany and Reneltta Arluk sought to create something “inspiring and uplifting” In a Zoom interview with Classic 107, Ivany states that the Black Lives Matter protests earlier in 2020 brought their attention to the lack of diversity and inclusion in the Performing Arts so they wanted to create something specifically to celebrate Canadian multiculturalism.
A growing concern in the fine arts is that classical music is becoming increasingly obsolete and will eventually stop being performed, but I think that the coronavirus is proof that classical music will always find a way to persist. Despite being unable to meet and perform in person, we have found a way to continue playing and performing music. Independent of each other, these 3 productions of Handel’s Messiah were performed in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic. Despite all playing the exact same piece of music, they all had completely different interpretations and messages that they wanted to convey. The level of interpretation and variety in performances is something that could only be possible with such a well known and consistently performed piece such as The Messiah. The Messiah may be different every time it is performed, but it will never stop being performed.
