Messiah As It Was Originally Performed

Bella Voce. Charles Osgood photography.

In 1741, Charles Jennens sent his composer friend George Frideric Handel a libretto based on 73 verses of scripture from the King James Bible and Coverdale Psalter. Jennens urged Handel to write an oratorio using the text. He expressed his hope that Handel “will lay out his whole genius and skill upon it, that the composition may excel all his former compositions, as the subject excels every other subject. The subject is Messiah.”

Although Jennens was critical of the oratorio Handel wrote in only 24 days, history has made a far more enthusiastic judgment. Messiah is today among the world’s most popular choral works, and performances by professionals and amateurs alike are a beloved Christmas tradition.

While hundreds of singers and instrumentalists frequently take the stage for these seasonal concerts, on Saturday, November 22, Early Music Now presents Messiah as it was played and sung in Handel’s day. Performing is Bella Voce, a Chicago choral and orchestral ensemble that specializes in European Renaissance and Baroque performance practices. Reviewing a 2023 performance for Chicago Classical Review, Landon Hegedus praised Bella Voce for its Messiah, calling it “a deft balance between the semi-theatrical provenance of the work and the reverential nature of its subject matter…. [T]he chorus sang with precise intonation and blend, and the sheer presence of the sound overflowed with passion.”

Bella Voce artistic director Andrew Lewis will conduct 24 singers and 20 instrumentalists, very close in number to the musicians Handel assembled for Messiah’s first performance in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1742. Compared to larger performing forces, the smaller ensemble facilitates quicker tempos and faster transitions among the movements of Messiah, Lewis said. This creates a “really intense pacing of the narrative arc that is very engaging for the audience.” However, he says, the work is “equally as powerful when done on this smaller scale.”

Bella Voce will perform all of Messiah’s 53 movements. Of these, 21 are sung by the full chorus, and two are instrumental. The remainder are arias and recitatives sung as solos or duets. At Saturday’s concert, the solo and duo sections will be shared among nearly a dozen chorus members. Lewis enjoys the creative challenge of matching the voices and personalities of individual singers to these movements, adding depth and variety. For some of the arias, violin parts will be played as solos by concertmaster Martin Davids.

The orchestra will use strings, oboe, timpani, harpsichord, organ and baroque trumpet. Josh Cohen, principal baroque trumpet for the Washington Bach Consort and one of the nation’s top performers on the instrument, will join Bella Voce for the Milwaukee concert. The baroque trumpet, which has no valves, has a sound that is “brassy but mellower and softer” than the modern trumpet, Lewis said. “It blends really well with the singers.” It is featured in the bass aria The Trumpet Shall Sound.

Messiah will be performed at 5 p.m. Saturday, November 22, at the historic Saint Joseph Chapel, 1515 S. Layton Blvd., Milwaukee. A yearlong renovation of the stunning and acoustically live Romanesque Revival chapel has just been completed. Advance tickets are available online.

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