Stream: ENO - Messiah
I have an aversion to ‘atmospheric’ low-lit performances, and peering at the musicians through weird coloured lights. I avoid candle-lit concerts – especially those with musicians in 18th century costume. While there’s relief that the ENO ‘Messiah’ doesn’t fall into that category, the lighting team clearly had a lot of fun here. “This beautiful building” is seen bathed successively in gold, pink, purple and red, with blue neon tubes making occasional appearances. Stucco cherubs are picked out in the eerie glow and yellow spotlights halo the rapt individual faces of the chorus…
So far so awful, especially after a 10-minute introduction which followed the current script for BBC music and history programmes, in which selected facts are shouted by cheery presenters. To the usual mini-interviews recording the cast’s “excitement”, is now added the scholarly appraisal which reflects how Handel/Mozart/Shakespeare would have understood the necessity of adapting this work to fit strange circumstances just as we have to do today. Why does the BBC do it? It really isn’t that long since full-length performances of operas, plays and concerts appeared on television without all this patronising nonsense.
Reader, I persevered. Three reasons. Laurence Cummings, the conductor, is vastly experienced in Handel historic performance, and in the cast are Iestyn Davies and Christine Rice. Given the constraints he was presented with – do the Messiah in 50 minutes, use the Coliseum, and give current and past Harewood Artists a chance to sing - Cummings has a good stab at bringing the music alive. Skip the introduction, close your eyes from time to time, and enjoy the music.
The production works because Cummings has avoided simply giving us the greatest hits and has selected the arias and choruses to reflect the gist of Handel’s and his librettist Charles Jennens’ Redemption story, from Old Testament to New. “Unto us a child is born” is out, but there are opportunities for the chorus to get their teeth into some of the bleaker passages about the crucifixion. He’s conducted Handel operas here and at Covent Garden, so knows how smaller orchestras and vocal forces can work in large theatres. For much of the time the singers are accompanied by a chamber size orchestra, and the chorus is a manageable size, permitting them to sing with some flexibility and varied pace.
We’re promised eight soloists, but each sings only once. In the case of bass William Thomas his aria is very short, while tenor John Findon gets just two lines. All of them – and the chorus – sing without scores. This is essential for concentration I imagine when there’s an acoustic gap of a second from the stage to the back of the stalls where some of the chorus stands. The two established singers acquit themselves well. The countertenor, Iestyn Davies, in the royal box sings the prophecy, “Who may abide the day of his coming.” His voice is beautifully nuanced, with well-judged ornamentation in the recapitulation. The faster section, “He is like a refining fire,” is delivered with great energy, accompanied by frenzied string playing. Later Christine Rice gives a radiant performance of “He was despised.” Like Davies, she’s entirely at home in this repertoire, and her clear mezzo focuses on the text, in a way which gets to the heart of the narrative.
The rest of the singers, though already garnering good reviews have not all had experience in baroque music. I like the ways that Cummings supports them. Nardus Williams has sung in a small-scale ‘Messiah’ at King’s Place and will shortly sing with the Dunedin Consort in ‘Dido’s Ghost’, a sequel to Purcell’s opera by Errolyn Wallen. She is on stage, close to the conductor on harpsicord and the small group of musicians, so she can effectively sing as if in a smaller auditorium. Nadine Benjamin, who recently gave a show-stopping Witch in Scottish Opera’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’, has sung Musetta at the Coliseum and has no problems with the large space. Here Cummings gets her to rein her voice in. “I know that my Redeemer liveth” has a sparse accompaniment of harpsicord, and three string players, and Benjamin controls her big soprano to fit. She and the solo violinist weave round each other in the melody to create a lovely effect.
The other young male singers top and tail the performance. Both have powerful voices but sing some distance from the stage, and this causes one or two wobbles. Tenor, Anthony Gregory, who sings first has a strong voice but seems hampered by a slow-paced “Comfort ye,” He’s more assured in the quicker section “Every valley shall be exalted.” New Zealander, Benson Wilson, fares better in “The trumpet shall sound.” He’s in a box, so isn’t too far away from the trumpeter and small stage ensemble. He’s a pleasantly relaxed performer. I suspect this may not turn out to be his natural repertoire, but he doesn’t disgrace himself.
What I realised as the programme went on was that it had been filmed over a number of days, with the segments slotted together. The dim lighting handily conceals the number of musicians in the auditorium at any one time. This is especially true of chorus numbers. I am fairly sure that most of the choruses, are sung by a relatively modest sized choir, accompanied by an on-stage chamber orchestra. Then the next shot reveals ranks of violet-hued fiddlers emerging from the miasma at the back of the stage. Certainly, the Hallelujah Chorus and “Worthy is the Lamb/Amen” Chorus use a bigger choir and orchestra, with trumpeters and timpani in the boxes. So there’s a bit of the full Huddersfield Choral Society effect here too, and it sounds perfectly good in its way.
But what we miss is any sense that this Messiah is an ensemble piece, and whether it’s performed by amateur choirs or professional ensembles, the commitment to and enjoyment of a shared musical endeavour is surely what Handel’s music is about.
Available to stream for free on BBC iPlayer.
