Program Notes | Handel’s Messiah

George Frideric Handel
Born: February 23, 1685, in Halle, Germanu
Died: April 14, 1759, in London, England
Composed: August 22 to September 14, 1741
World Premiere: April 13, 1745, in Dublin, Ireland
Duration: 2 hours and 20 minutes
Instrumentation: In its original orchestration, Messiah was scored for strings and continuo, plus trumpet obbligato for the aria “The Trumpet Shall Sound.” For the London performances in 1743, Handel added oboes and bassoons, doubling the strings during the choruses. Today, Messiah is generally performed with oboes, bassoons, trumpets, timpani, strings and harpsichord & organ continuo, plus vocal soloists and chorus.

George Frideric Handel was born in Germany, educated in Germany and Italy and spent nearly all of his mature career in Italy and England, his eventual adopted home. Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach, he lived a far more cosmopolitan life and must be counted among the most international of composers. He was also a pragmatist. Recognizing as a young man that his future success lay in the mastery of Italian opera, he betook himself to Florence in 1706 at the invitation of Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici. While he lived and worked in Italy, his path crossed that of both Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Tomaso Albinoni, Antonio Caldara and Arcangelo Corelli. During his Italian years he developed a mastery of all types of vocal music, including opera, oratorio, chamber cantata and important instrumental forms like the concerto and the sonata.

When Handel left Italy in 1710 for Hanover and, eventually, England, he was a highly accomplished composer and a superb organist. Initially he made his reputation in London through Italian opera, but by the late 1720s English taste was changing. The highly successful run of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728) precipitated a revolution of sorts in popular taste. English audiences wanted their musical entertainment in English, and the future of Italian opera in London looked grim.

The necessary adjustment prompted Handel to turn his energies to a series of sacred oratorios on primarily Old Testament texts. These date primarily from the 1730s until Handel’s death in 1759, and Messiah is the crown jewel among them. Handel composed his most famous oratorio in a period of 24 days from late August to mid-September 1741 in London. The work received its first performance in Dublin on April 13, 1742. The oratorio rapidly worked its way into the English repertoire as well. While its first London performance, in 1743, received an indifferent reception, Handel had the satisfaction of witnessing a change of fortune for the work during his lifetime. After 1750, when a performance was presented in London to benefit a Foundling Hospital, Messiah became an annual event, a tradition that has grown to remarkable proportions in many countries besides England.

Handel’s librettist for Messiah was Charles Jennens, a wealthy Englishman with whom Handel had collaborated on the 1738 oratorio Saul. He selected his texts primarily from the Prayer Book, also drawing on the Book of Isaiah and the Gospels. Far from being exclusively Christmas-season texts, Jennens’ words also have relevance to Easter, Ascension and Whitsun. As Nicholas Kenyon has observed:

Messiah is an oratorio which celebrates the whole of Christ’s work, from its anticipation in the prophecy of the Old Testament, through his life, suffering, death and Resurrection, to his future second coming in glory.

No small order for a composer, that. But Handel was equal to the task. Winton Dean, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, has admirably summarized some elements of what makes Messiah so special.

The greatness of Messiah—Handel’s only sacred oratorio in the true sense and therefore untypical—derives on one level from its unique fusion of the traditions of Italian opera, English anthem and German passion, and on another from the coincidence of Handel’s personal faith and creative genius to express, more fully than in any other work of art, the deepest aspirations of the Anglican religious spirit.

To the chorister, whether in a formal performing ensemble or in an audience participating from a seat in the hall, Messiah is more than what Dean describes. Who can resist the excitement of the full chorus’ first entrances in “And the glory of the Lord?” What choral singer does not shiver with delicious anticipation at the prospect of negotiating the formidable melismas in the fugue subjects of “And he shall purify” and “His Yoke is Easy, and His Burthen is Light?” Is there any choral movement that encapsulates the spirit of the holiday season so perfectly as “For Unto us a Child is Born?” To Messiah as well belongs the most famous and revered tradition in all choral music: the entire assembly rising to stand at the conclusion of Handel’s Part II, when the orchestra intones the familiar three introductory measures of “Hallelujah.”

Here is music that speaks to the spirit in the most warm and communicative of ways; here is music that is fun—albeit very demanding!—to sing. And for those moments of participatory repose between choruses, Handel provides a wealth of glorious solo music for our enjoyment, including some recitative as moving as any operatic example: “Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d” (preceding “He Shall Feed His Flock/Come Unto Him”) and “Thy rebuke hath broken his Heart” (leading to “Behold, and See if there be any Sorrow”) come immediately to mind.

Among the other favorite relatives we are delighted to re-encounter in this rich family of arias, recitatives, orchestral interludes and choruses are the tenor arias “Comfort Ye” and “Ev’ry Valley Shall be Exalted”; soprano arias “Rejoice Greatly” and “I Know that my Redeemer Liveth,” the bass aria “The Trumpet Shall Sound” and the incomparable contralto solo “He was despised.” With the latter is associated a wonderful story that epitomizes the spirit of Messiah.

On the occasion of the first performance in Dublin on April 13, 1742, the contralto soloist was the English singer and actress Susanna Maria Cibber, sister of the composer Thomas Arne. Her elopement with her lover, John Sloper, several years previously, had precipitated a scandalous lawsuit that prompted her to retire from public appearances for three years, choosing to reside quietly in the Berksire countryside with Sloper. She travelled to Dublin in 1741 for a single season at the Aungier Street Theatre. Travel was slow in the mid-eighteenth-century, but gossip, as always, made its way rapidly, and Mrs. Cibber’s (by which name she remained known) muddied reputation preceded her.

When Handel arrived in Dublin with his entourage to prepare for the premiere of Messiah, he contracted with her to perform as one of his soloists. His decision, though it might have been questionable from the standpoint of public opinion, was artistically sound. So sweet was her singing, and so transporting her interpretation, that a distinguished member of that first audience, Reverend Dr. Delany, was moved to rise from his seat and exclaim: “Woman, for this, be all thy sins forgiven!”

No such drama is expected from modern audiences, but singers and instrumentalists alike take great pride in faithful execution of this immortal score. More than two and one-half centuries after that first performance, Handel’s music is still capable of transporting us to a higher plane.

GRAMMY-winning conductor Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today’s most compelling interpreters of Baroque and Classical repertoire. She is the subject of Oscar-winning director Allan Miller’s documentary, PLAYING WITH FIRE: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting, commercially released in 2023.

Bridging the period-instrument and symphonic worlds from a young age, she studied conducting under Leonard Bernstein, Roger Norrington and Robert Spano at the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals; and studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. She won First Prize in the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from four continents.

As a guest conductor, Sorrell made her New York Philharmonic debut in 2021 to rave reviews, and quickly returned in 2023. She has repeatedly conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco and New World Symphony, and has also led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Opera St Louis with the St Louis Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Calgary Philharmonic (Canada), Royal Northern Sinfonia (UK) and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Spain), among others.

In 2024, she makes debuts with the Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall.

As founder and conductor of Apollo’s Fire, she has led the renowned ensemble at London’s BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall and many international venues. Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 30 commercial CDs, including 11 bestsellers on the Billboard classical chart and a 2019 GRAMMY winner. Her CD recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion and Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons have been chosen as best in the field by The Sunday Times of London (2020 and 2021). Her Monteverdi Vespers recording was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as one of “30 Must-Have Recordings for Our Lifetime” (2022).

With over 14 million views of her YouTube videos, Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming. She received an honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve University and an award from the American Musicological Society.

With a voice described as “golden” (Seen and Heard International), soprano Sonya Headlam performs music that spans centuries. Recent highlights include debuts with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the New York Philharmonic. In the 2022–2023 season, Headlam made several notable solo debuts, including with the Philadelphia Orchestra in George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, her Severance Hall debut with conductor Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the North Carolina Symphony. Headlam’s repeated collaborations with Apollo’s Fire, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street have played a significant role in her career.

Upcoming highlights of the 2024–25 season include Headlam’s solo debut with the Summer for the City Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center singing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and an aria from Joseph Bologne’s L’Amant anonyme. Fall 2024, Headlam returned to the recording studio with the Raritan Players to record Trevor Weston’s song cycle Reflections, a new commission. Additional highlights of the 2024–25 season include a meaningful return to her home state of Ohio to perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and her debut with the New Jersey Symphony, singing Handel’s Messiah.

Equally at home on the opera stage, Headlam has delighted audiences with her portrayals of characters such as le Feu in  Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Musetta in Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème.

In 2024, Headlam premiered the role of The Caretaker in Luna Pearl Woolf’s photographic oratorio, Number Our Days (conceiver, librettist David Van Taylor), at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC). She also joined the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Friends for their dynamic new interpretation of Steve Reich’s legendary 1976 work, Music for 18 Musicians, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2021, she premiered Patricio Molina’s spiritual song “Kecha Tregulfe” at Carnegie Hall, marking the first performance of a song in the Mapudungun language on that stage. In 2023, Headlam was honored to be appointed as the Rohde Family Artist-in-Residence at the Chelsea Music Festival, where she performed a wide range of chamber music in non-traditional concert spaces, including a performance of Iman Habibi’s beautiful and effervescent Ey Sabā with violinist Max Tan. Other important innovative contemporary projects include her involvement in Yaz Lancaster’s song cycle ouroboros, produced by Beth Morrison Projects; a role in Ellen Reid’s dreams of the new world with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street at the Prototype Festival; participation in Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (afterlight), directed by Peter Sellars at the Park Avenue Armory; and several performances of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, including at MASS MoCA and Carnegie Hall.

Countertenor John Holiday has established himself as “one of the finest countertenors of his generation” (Los Angeles Times). His voice has been praised as “a thing of astonishing beauty” (New Yorker), “arrestingly powerful, secure and dramatically high” (Wall Street Journal) and “timeless” (Washington Post). Holiday’s unique voice and powerful story have been the subject of profiles in The New Yorker, CNN’s “Great Big Story,” Los Angeles Times and more.

Highlights for Holiday’s 2024–25 season include a debut in the role of Farnace in Mitridate, re di Ponto at Boston Lyric Opera in a production by James Darrah, and his debut in the title role in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten in a new Barrie Kosky production at Komische Oper Berlin. Holiday will return to the Bayerische Staatsoper in two titles: Le Grand Macabre in October and Dido and Aeneas in July 2025, and will embark on a tour of Giulio Cesare with The English Concert and Harry Bicket in the role of Tolomeo at venues including Carnegie Hall and the Barbican Centre. He will perform alongside the San Francisco Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony and the Apollo Chamber Players, and perform a solo recital at the Wolf Trap Foundation of the Performing Arts. He will also appear on NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert” series and on an episode of NPR’s “Amplify with Lara Downes.”

An acclaimed concert singer, Holiday has performed at world-renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, London’s Barbican Center and the Philharmonie de Paris. His career highlights include a tour with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Sorceress in Barrie Kosky’s production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice as Orpheus’ Double at the Los Angeles Opera; the world premiere of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s We Shall Not Be Moved with Opera Philadelphia and the Dutch National Opera; title role in Xerxes at the Glimmerglass Festival; and Caesar in George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at Wolf Trap Opera. In addition to the traditional concert performances and recitals, Holiday has curated The John Holiday Experience (JHE) to showcase his affinity and talent for many different genres that includes classical, pop, jazz and R&B. He has performed the program on a national scale, bringing it to Dallas, Des Moines and Dayton, with plans to continue the eclectic evening of song in his upcoming seasons.

Outside of classical repertoire, Holiday excels in jazz, gospel and pop music, having opened for GRAMMY Award-winner Jason Mraz in concert. In 2018, Holiday sang the national anthem for his hometown team, the Houston Rockets, and in 2019, Holiday performed at the star-studded Ozwald Boateng Harlem Runway Show at The Apollo Theater, in a performance that was covered by Vogue, Forbes and CNN, and attended by celebrities Jamie Foxx, Idris Elba, Dapper Dan and others. Additionally, in 2019 Holiday performed Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” at the Apollo Theater Spring Gala.

Holiday has been the recipient of numerous major competitions and award programs such as the 2017 Marian Anderson Vocal Award; the 2014 Richard Tucker Foundation’s Sara Tucker award; first place at the 2013 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, the 2012 Sullivan Foundation and the 2011 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition; and third place winner in the 2014 OPERALIA competition. In addition, Holiday was selected among WQXR’s prestigious 20 for “20 Artists to Watch,” named one of BroadwayWorld’s “New York Opera Gifts that Keep on Giving,” nominated for “Newcomer of the Year” by the German magazine Opernwelt and listed as one of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 honorees for 2018. In May 2023, Holiday announced his appointment as an associate professor of voice at the University of Maryland School of Music beginning in Fall 2023.

Holiday received a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a Master of Music in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music and the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School in New York City. Holiday grew up in Rosenberg, Texas, located near Houston, and attended the town’s public schools.

Ed Lyon studied at St. John’s College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) and the National Opera Studio (NOS). He has a wide repertoire ranging from the baroque to contemporary music and has appeared in many of the world’s leading opera and concert venues including the Royal Opera House (ROH), Glyndebourne, Bayerische Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real, Edinburgh, Aix, Salzburg, Holland and Aldeburgh Festivals and the BBC Proms.

Highlights have included the main role in Edison Denisov’s L’écume des jours (Stuttgart Opera), Steva in Jenufa (Opera North), Lurcanio in Ariodante, Steurerman in Der fliegende Holländer and Walther in Tannhäuser (ROH), Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Scottish Opera), Jaquino in Fidelio (Madrid) and Alessandro in Eliogabolo for Dutch National Opera. Recent and future engagements include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Gomez in Henry VIII (La Monnaie), Septimius in Theodora (Covent Garden and Madrid), Lurcanio (New Israeli Opera) and in a new production for Covent Garden, Belmonte in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and the main singer in Clorinda Agonistes (The Grange Festival), Quint in The Turn of the Screw, the title role in Orfeo and Grimoaldo in Rodelinda for Garsington, Eduardo in Ades’ Exterminating Angel (Salzburg Festival and Covent Garden), title role in Candide (WNO), performances worldwide of The Diary of One who Disappeared in a staged production with Musiktheater Transparent, Ferdinand in Miranda (Oper Köln). Concert work includes St. Matthew Passion with the Bach Choir and the 2024 Edinburgh Festival, St. John Passion with the RLPO, War Requiem with the NDR Hanover and the RLPO, a tour of Europe and the US performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Missa Solemnis with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The Apostles with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder, various performances of Messiah all around the world as well as many concert performances with leading orchestras and ensembles internationally. He has also given solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall.

His recording 17th Century Playlist with the Theatre of the Ayre has received wide acclaim as has Malcom Arnold’s The Dancing Master for Resonus Classics.

Kevin Deas has gained international renown as one of America’s leading bass-baritones. He is perhaps most acclaimed for his signature portrayal of the title role in Porgy and Bess, having performed it with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, as well as the most illustrious orchestras on the North American continent and at the Ravinia, Vail and Saratoga festivals.

Deas’ past season highlights includes performances of Joseph Haydn’s The Creation with the Minnesota Orchestra; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem with the Toronto Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Orchestra Iowa and National Philharmonic & Chorale; Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Florida Orchestra; George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic; Camille Saint-Saëns’ Henry VII with Odyssey Opera of Boston; Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria and Rhode Island Philharmonic; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony and Bach Festival Society of Winter Park; and William Walton’s Façade at the Virginia Arts Festival. He has performed selections from George Gershwin with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, selections from the musicals Les Miserables, Show Boat and Ragtime with Providence Singers, in “The Spiritual in White America,” a presentation of black spirituals transformed for the white concert stage by Harry Burleigh and Nathaniel Dett, at the Phillips Collection and a Christmas concert with the Portland Symphony.

A strong proponent of contemporary music, Deas was heard at Italy’s Spoleto Festival in a new production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and The Night Visitors in honor of the composer’s 85th birthday, recorded on video for international release. He also performed the world premieres of Derek Bermel’s The Good Life with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Hannibal Lokumbe’s Dear Mrs. Parks with the Detroit Symphony. His 20-year collaboration with the late jazz legend Dave Brubeck has taken him to Salzburg, Vienna and Moscow in performances of To Hope! He performed Brubeck’s Gates of Justice in a gala performance in New York.

Deas recorded Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger (Decca/London) with the Chicago Symphony under the late Sir Georg Solti and Edgard Varèse’s Ecuatorial with the ASKO Ensemble under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. Other releases include Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Vox Classics); Brubeck’s To Hope! with the Cathedral Choral Society (Telarc); and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Virginia Symphony and Boston Baroque (Linn Records). Dvorák in America (Naxos), features Deas in the world premiere recording of Antonín Dvořák’s “Hiawatha Melodrama” and the composer’s own arrangement of “Goin’ Home” with the PostClassical Ensemble.

Under the direction of Australian-born conductor Heather J. Buchanan since September 2003, the Montclair State University choral program has been recognized for successful collaborations with world-renowned artists and celebrated professional musicians in national and international venues, including Meredith Monk, Richard Alston Dance Company (UK), VOCES8 and Eric Whitacre. Montclair choirs appear regularly with the New Jersey Symphony and have won critical acclaim for their “heartfelt conviction,” “vibrant sound,” being a “marvel of diction, tuning and rhythm,” “eloquence” and for singing with the “crispness and dexterity of a professional choir.” Pianist Steven W. Ryan is the Montclair choral accompanist.

University Singers, Montclair’s flagship choir, is an elective mixed-voice ensemble comprising undergraduate and graduate students with a passion for choral singing. Previous NJ Symphony performances include Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. (Lacombe), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem (Lacombe and Zhang), the US premiere of Speak Out (Zhang) and George Frideric Handel’s Messiah annually since 2014. They recorded Songs of Ascension with Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble on the prestigious European label ECM Records under legendary producer Manfred Eicher, which received a GRAMMY nomination in the Producer of the Year section. Their solo recording I Sing Because (March 2020) is available for digital download on Spotify and iTunes.

Established in 1908, Montclair State is a Research Doctoral Institution ranked in the top tier of national universities, with 13 degree-granting colleges/schools serving more than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students. At Montclair’s John J. Cali School of Music, students study with a world-class faculty drawn from the finest musicians and scholars in the New York metropolitan area and beyond. Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities Dr. Heather J. Buchanan holds degrees from the University of New England (Australia), Westminster Choir College of Rider University (USA) and the Queensland Conservatorium at Griffith University (Australia) and is a Licensed Body Mapping Educator. A vibrant teacher, dynamic performer and passionate musicians’ health advocate, she is in demand as a guest conductor, somatic educator and choral clinician in the US and abroad.