By JOHN BURNETT By JOHN BURNETT ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer Most people associate “Messiah” with Christmas, but that isn’t how George Frideric Handel’s best-known work was originally conceived. “It was originally planned to be played around the Easter season, not
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Most people associate “Messiah” with Christmas, but that isn’t how George Frideric Handel’s best-known work was originally conceived.
“It was originally planned to be played around the Easter season, not the Christmas season. But in the last 100 years or so it’s been more closely associated with Christmas,” said Tom McAlexander, director of Hilo Community Chorus. He added that the piece “covers the advent to the ascension, so it really is the life of Jesus, the Messiah in the Christian ideology.”
The local choral group will perform Parts II and III of the masterpiece on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Palace Theater in downtown Hilo. Tickets for the concert, a fundraiser for the Palace, are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Advance tickets are available at Basically Books, The Most Irresistible Shop and at the Palace box office. The box office number is 934-7010.
“It is probably one of the most glorious pieces of music ever composed in a short piece of time,” McAlexander said, noting that Handel completed the entire oratorio in a 24-day period in 1741. “That’s genius.”
There are approximately 55 singers involved in the production, including four vocal soloists: Kau‘i Trainer, soprano; Gerdine Markus, alto; Pedro Ka‘awaloa, tenor; and Leslie “Buz” Tennent, bass.
“Those are four great voices,” McAlexander said. Trainer, Markus and Ka‘awaloa are all from Hilo and are familiar to local audiences. Tennent, a performer of international note, is a vocal professor at Chaminade University in Honolulu, and appeared on the Palace stage in 2002 as Don Quixote in Kilauea Drama and Entertainment Network’s production of “Man of La Mancha.”
The arias include: “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” by Trainer; “He Was Despised” by Markus; “Behold, and See if There Be Any Sorrow” by Ka‘awaloa; and “The Trumpet Shall Sound” by Tennent. In addition, the chorus will sing “Hallelujah,” the most widely recognized movement of the piece, which closes Part II.
Walter Greenwood, a recent arrival from Pittsburgh, will provide organ accompaniment. Rick Mazurowski will play the continuo on electronic keyboard and there are also two trumpeters, Armando Mendoza and Claton Mine.
McAlexander said that “Messiah” Part I is performed yearly around Christmas as a sing-along at Church of the Holy Cross in Hilo, but Parts II and III, other than “Hallelujah,” are rarely performed here.
“As far as I can find out, it hasn’t been done here since the early 1980s.”
A former tenor soloist with the Metropolitan Chorus in Arlington, Va., McAlexander said he chose “Messiah” simply because “I wanted to do it.”
“I’ve sung it several times but I’ve never conducted it,” he said, and added, “I think people will be tremendously impressed with the sound of this chorus.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
