Handel's Messiah
Saison
2024/2025
Handel's Oratorio HWV 56 - Foundling Hospital Version 1754
Conrad-Alain.jpg)
When Handel's “Messiah” was first performed on 13 April 1742 in the brand-new Music Hall in Dublin, more than one of the 700 listeners present must have intuitively grasped the exceptional importance of this piece of music. But no one, not even the composer, could have imagined that in the space of a few years, it would become one of the greatest public successes of all time and would exert a decisive influence on the evolution of the oratorio genre.
Distribution
Magali Simard-Galdes soprano
Pauline Feracci soprano
Camille-Taos Arbouz alto*
Pierre Derhet tenor
Andreas Wolf bass-baritone
The Spiritual Concert chorus and orchestra
Hervé Niquet managements
*Camille-Taos is a member of the first session of the Académie de l'Opéra Royal de Versailles (2023-2025)
Program
Georg Friedrich Handel
The Messiah, Version known as Foundling HospitaL of 1754
Production
Duration
2:15 + intermission
Photo credit
The Spiritual Concert - Royal Chapel of Versailles 2018 (c) Conrad Allain
Additional information
Oratorio sung in English, surtitled in French
For his messiah, Handel seems to have been stimulated by the unusual booklet that his old friend, the librettist Charles Jennens, offered him in the summer of 1741: a presentation of the life of Jesus that was not based, as usual, on the stories of the four Gospels, but largely followed the texts of the Old Testament prophets.
This gave him the opportunity to combine the various traditions of Italian opera, English anthems, and German passion oratorios in a new way.
His enthusiasm and the intensity of his inspiration can be measured by the extremely short time he took to compose. The Messiah : he began this monumental work on August 22 and completed it only three weeks later, on September 14.
The reaction of the public to the premiere in Dublin was such that tickets had to be sold for the dress rehearsal.
The Dublin Journal wrote about this: “The sublime, the grandiose and the tender, adapted to the loftiest, most majestic and most moving words, conspired to charm and win the ears and hearts delighted.” Based on Peter Wollny, © Alpha Classics
This program was the subject of a registration phonographic for Alpha Classics in 2017 >> all you need to know aboutAlpha 362 album
And of a Captation by Wahoo production for the label Palace of Versailles Spectacles released on DVD in 2019 under >> CVS reference 013
The concert on August 22, 2025 is given as part of the 59th edition of the Chaise-Dieu Festival.
The concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées is given as part of the Great Voices - Great Soloists 2024-2025. It will be followed by a signing session by Hervé Niquet.
