A "Messiah" mystery: standing for the "Hallelujah" chorus

Apparently not everyone stands for the "Hallelujah"
(Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe)

In a recent post I looked at the way Handel’s Messiah got moved from Easter to Christmas. This time I’d like to take a look at an even more puzzling question: Why does everyone stand during the “Hallelujah” chorus that concludes Part 2?

The usual explanation is that King George the II stood when he first heard it at the London premiere in March of 1743 and everybody else followed suit because, hey, he was the king. It’s a great story with only one little flaw: there’s no evidence that George II ever attended a performance of Messiah at all. The story appears to come, not from a contemporary account, but (according to Matthew Guerrieri in a 2009 article for the Boston Globe, whence cometh the picture above) from a secondhand description in a letter written by James Beattie 37 years later (a classic example of how urban legends originate). The story is, in short, almost certainly apocryphal.

The tradition appears to go back a long way, though. When George Harris attended a Messiah performance in 1750 he observed that “[a]t some of the chorus’s the company stood up,” suggesting that the custom extended beyond just the “Hallelujah.” Six years later, another account mentions the audience standing for “grand choruses.” In his video series on Messiah Andrew Megill, Music Director of Masterwork Chorus, describes a letter written by a woman who attended a Messiah in Handel’s time complaining of audience members who weren’t standing during the appropriate choruses—suggesting that the practice was already fairly well established.

The bottom line, though, is that nobody really seems to know where the custom originated or, for that matter, why so many of us are still doing it. Like the Christmas performance tradition, it seems to be a meme that just won’t die. For anyone attending Messiah for the first time, it must seem just another example of the sometimes baffling and contradictory rules of etiquette that go with classical music concerts.

We could probably do without some of those, by the way; but that’s another post.

How Handel's Messiah became a Christmas tradition

The Christmas season in upon us. For those of us keeping track of the entertainment scene, that means an inevitable encounter with at least one performance of all of the following: a stage adaptation of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (probably with music), Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, and Handel’s Messiah. In fact, we’ve already see all three here in St. Louis, including a nice Baroque-sized performance of the Handel by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (see my review at 88.1 KDHX for details).

The Dickens and Tchaikovsky make perfect sense since they’re both explicitly Christmas stories. But how did Messiah get in there? It was first performed on April 13th, 1742 in Dublin, repeated that same June, and then moved to London, where it was first presented on March 23, 1743. I can’t find any evidence that the work was in any way associated with Christmas during Handel’s life. In fact, as Christopher H. Gibbs points out in his program notes for a 2007 NPR broadcast of Messiah from Philadelphia , “Handel performed it some three dozen times—every time, it should be noted, around Easter, not Christmas.” As Jonathan Kandell notes in an article for the September 2009 edition of Smithsonian, however, “[b]y the early 19th century, performances of Messiah had become an even stronger Yuletide tradition in the United States than in Britain.”

An important piece of the puzzle is supplied is supplied by Luke Howard in his program notes for a 2009 Messiah performance by UMS Choral Union:

The tradition of performing Messiah at Christmas began later in the 18th century. Although the work was occasionally performed during Advent in Dublin, the oratorio was usually regarded in England as an entertainment for the penitential season of Lent, when performances of opera were banned. Messiah’s extended musical focus on Christ’s redeeming sacrifice also makes it particularly suitable for Passion Week and Holy Week, the periods when it was usually performed during Handel’s lifetime. But in 1791, the Cæcilian Society of London began its annual Christmas performances, and in 1818 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston gave the work’s first complete performance in the US on Christmas Day—establishing a tradition that continues to the present.

It apparently took a while for the Christmas tradition to become well established, though. As Marie Gangemil of the Oratorio Society of New York writes in her program notes for their upcoming Messiah, the first December performance by that organization didn’t take place until 1874.

But are these events sufficient to explain why the tradition became so widespread? Might there also be a supply and demand issue here? As Laurence Cummings (director of the London Handel Orchestra) observed in the Smithsonian article cited above: “There is so much fine Easter music—Bach's St. Matthew Passion, most especially—and so little great sacral music written for Christmas. But the whole first part of Messiah is about the birth of Christ."

So there you have it. Boston and New York picked up the idea from London, and the rest of the USA, seeing a chance to fill a product gap, picked it up from them. It’s a reminder that memes were spreading long before the Internet, just a lot more slowly.

Review of Winter Opera's "The Mikado"

Katisha (Lindsey Anderson) fails to blow Nanki-Poo's (Isaiah Bell)
cover in the Act I finale of The Mikado

I have a friend who says he loves directing Shakespeare because it’s so easy to do. Just don’t get in the playwright’s way and you can’t lose. I think the same could be said of the better Gilbert and Sullivan operettas as well. Don’t mess with G&S and you’re golden.

Winter Opera’s Mikado (presented November 9 and 11 at the Skip Viragh Center on the Chaminade campus) does, unfortunately, mess with G&S from time to time. But the tinkering is infrequent enough and light enough to let the jolly good fun of Gilbert’s wit and Sullivan’s delightful score shine through. This wasn’t a great Mikado, but it was a very fine one. If you’re a dedicated Savoyard (like yours truly) I hope you didn’t miss it.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first. The cast was consistently strong, and some performances were downright outstanding. Mezzo Lindsey Anderson, for example, may be too pretty for Katisha (“a most unattractive old thing / With a caricature of a face”) but behind that stylized makeup you wouldn’t have known it, and she sang and acted the role beautifully. Granted, Katisha doesn’t do much, but it takes a good actress to make her (frankly) unnecessary Act II aria interesting. Ms. Anderson certainly did that. Soprano Kathleen Jasinskas was a comic charmer as Katisha’s nemesis, Yum-Yum, beloved of “wandering minstrel” and royal heir Nanki-Poo, sung with equal charm by tenor Isaiah Bell.

Baritone Lane Johnson had the Principal Comedian role of Ko-Ko, the “cheap tailor” raised to the exulted post of Lord High Executioner despite the fact that he literally wouldn't hurt a fly. He’s gotten rave reviews for previous performances of the part elsewhere, and it’s not hard to see why: a solid voice and impeccable comic timing. Bass-baritone Edward Hanlon was an engaging Pish-Tush, making this minor character more interesting than is sometimes the case. Director John Stephens (who also sang the role of the Mikado with great relish) gave him a little romantic subplot with Pitti-Sing (local mezzo Erin Haupt in another charmer of a performance). It wasn’t strictly Gilbertian, but it worked.

Baritone Gary Moss was presumably down at the bottom of his tessitura for in the bass role of the snobbish Poo-Bah, the Lord High Everything Else whose family pride is “something inconceivable”, but you’d not have known it from his singing. His performance involved a bit too much mugging and physical business for my taste—the big joke about Poo-Bah, after all, is his stolid pomposity—but it certainly went down well with the audience. It was also in sync with Mr. Stephens’s direction, which tended to bit too loaded with shtick at times, so I expect my real gripe was with him rather than Mr. Moss.

Then there’s the matter of the updated lyrics. It has been customary for many years now to replace Gilbert’s dated (and occasionally racist) topical jokes with contemporary equivalents, especially in Ko-Ko’s "As some day it may happen" and the Mikado’s "A more humane Mikado". Most of the revisions worked pretty well, with the Mikado’s song getting some especially clever revisions that left the bulk of the lyrics intact. There were a few too many political and sports jokes for me, but that’s just a matter of individual taste. They all went over well with the audience.

I also thought it was a shame that "See how the fates their gifts allot" got cut from Act II, but if you must cut something, that’s probably the best bet.

The chorus was smallish (eight men and eight women) but it sounded big, and elocution was good enough to make the projected English text unnecessary. The orchestra sounded impressive as well under conductor Michael Mishra, although his tempi were sometimes plodding. With smaller opera companies, the band sometimes suffers from anemic violins and sloppy winds, but there was none of that here. The fact that the Viragh Center has an actual orchestra pit also eliminated some of the balance problems you sometimes encounter in performance spaces that weren’t designed with musical theatre in mind.

In fact, the Viragh Center (on the Chaminade campus in Frontenac) might just be one of the best opera spaces in town. The stage is large and deep, sight lines are good, and the seating is comfortable. The move there has raised Winter Opera’s costs, but if they can manage to make this work they will be serious players on the local musical theatre scene.

The production looked as good as it sounded, with bright cartoonish sets from Scott Loebl, colorful Japanese costumes by JC Krajicek, and effective lighting by Sean Savoie.

So, while my rapture over this Mikado was somewhat modified, there’s no denying it was an entertaining piece of work and very welcome in a town that doesn’t see many Gilbert and Sullivan productions since Opera Theatre dropped their annual G&S show at the Edison Theatre many years ago. Winter Opera’s season continues with Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe (a work I haven’t seen in decades) in February and Puccini’s Tosca in March. There’s also a Holidays on the Hill program in December at Dominic’s Restaurant on (naturally) The Hill. For more information: winteroperastl.org.

Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic for 88.1 KDHX, where this review originally appeared.

Winter Opera Saint Louis Presents Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado"

Winter Opera Saint Louis commences its sixth season this weekend with W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan’s operetta The Mikado. Far too much illegal flirting has gone on in the Japanese town of Titipu. Thus, the Mikado (emperor of all) decrees that heads must roll. Nanki-Poo (wandering minstrel and errant son of the Mikado) longs to marry lovely Yum-Yum—but he’s promised to the older (and unpleasant) Katisha! At the same time, Yum-Yum is betrothed to Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner! Beheadings, boiling in oil…punishments galore are devised to make “criminals” pay. But fear not—this is a comedy, and you’ll be smiling the moment the curtain rises. Audiences will hear several memorable, melodies including “Three Little Maids From School,” “A Wand’ring Minstrel I,” “The Sun Whose Rays,” and the “Tit-Willow” Song.

Kathleen Jasinskas & Isaiah Bell

Artistic Director Gina Galati and Music Director Steven Jarvi have assembled a cast, crew and orchestra of talents new and familiar to St. Louis audiences. Several principal artists make their Winter Opera Saint Louis debut: Tenor Isaiah Bell, who has sung for Opéra de Montréal and Calgary Opera sings the role of Nanki-Poo. Artist with Tri-Cities Opera and Shreveport Opera, Soprano Kathleen Jasinskas portrays Yum-Yum. Mezzo-Soprano Lindsey Anderson, an artist with Seattle Opera and Opera North, sings Katisha. Baritone Gary Moss, a veteran of the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire, sings Pooh-Bah. Bass-Baritone Edward Hanlon, artist with the Glimmerglass Festival and Lyric Opera of Chicago, sings the role of Pish-Tush. Soprano Emily Truckenbrod, artist with Wichita Grand Opera, sings the role of Peep-Bo. Returning artists include Baritone Lane Johnson (Ko-Ko) and Mezzo-Soprano Erin Haupt (Pitti-Sing). Mr. Johnson was last seen as Johann in Winter Opera’s Werther. Ms. Haupt sings her first principal role with Winter Opera.

  

(Clockwise from top left: Isaiah Bell, Kathleen Jasinskas, Lane Johnson and Lindsey Anderson)

John Stephens

After staging and performing in Winter Opera’s 2010 production of Werther, Baritone John Stephens returns to Winter Opera Saint Louis to once again perform double-duty as Stage Director and portray the title role. Conductor Michael Mishra, director of the Southern Illinois University Orchestra, leads in the pit. Nancy Mayo, adjunct professor of piano and accompanying at Webster University and resident collaborative pianist with Winter Opera Saint Louis, serves as rehearsal pianist. Jennifer Krajicek, who costumed last season’s La Bohème, returns as Costume Designer. Scott Loebl returns to Winter Opera as Set Designer. Having most recently designed for Winter Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Sean Savoie returns as Lighting Designer. Theresa Loebl serves as Production Manager.

The Mikado will be performed on Friday, November 9th (8pm) and Sunday, November 11th (3pm) at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts at Chaminade located at 425 S. Lindbergh Blvd. Production sung in English with projected English supertitles. Tickets may be purchased by calling Winter Opera Saint Louis at 314-865-0038 or online at http://winteroperastl.tix.com/

For further information on the company, its future performances and special events, visit winteroperastl.org.

Union Avenue Opera Presents "Opera Gala 2012" on Saturday

Union Avenue Opera invites you to Opera Gala 2012, an evening of unforgettable arias performed by alumni artists and accompanied by the Union Avenue Opera orchestra this Saturday, November 3rd at 8:00pm. Members of the American Federation of Musicians along with several UAO singing artists have once again graciously donated their services to the company for the performance.

Concertgoers will hear arias and duets from a variety of operas including Handel's Giulio Cesare, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Verdi's La Traviata, Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, Bellini's Norma, Gounod's Faust, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and many more...

Maestro Scott Schoonover has assembled a lineup of singers from seasons past and present:

Joy Boland

(Freia, Das Rheingold ’12)

Jon Garrett

(Howard Boucher, Dead Man Walking ’11)

Debra Hillabrand

(Mrs. Patrick de Rocher, Dead Man Walking ’11)

Ann Hoyt Wazelle

(Susanna, Le Nozze di Figaro ’06)

Marlissa Hudson

(Bess, Porgy and Bess ’07)

Courtney Mills

(Amelia, Un ballo in maschera ’12)

Andy Papas

(Major General, The Pirates of Penzance ’10)

Marc Schapman

(Loge, Das Rheingold ’12)

Clark Sturdevant

(Froh, Das Rheingold ’12)

A reception follows at Tavern of Fine Arts. Tickets sold separately for $50 each ($25 tax-deductible).

Tickets for the Gala [Patron: $250* | Reserved Center/Balcony: $50 | General Admission: $35] can be purchased by clicking here or calling the Union Avenue Opera Box Office at 314-361-2881.

*Includes $175 tax-deductible donation and ticket to Gala Reception

Winter Opera Saint Louis Presents "1920s Masquerade Ball" Tomorrow Night

Winter Opera Saint Louis invites you to join fellow opera lovers in a 1920s Masquerade Ball tomorrow night, October 26th, 2012 at 6:30pm! Dine on the stage of the beautiful Skip Viragh Center for the Performing Arts (425 S. Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63131) and experience opera up close and personal with a behind-the-scenes look at Winter Opera’s new home. Catered by Dominic’s on the Hill and featuring the talents of Winter Opera’s top artists, join us for an evening of wine, dancing and song!

For the entertainment of the evening, Artistic Director Gina Galati is pleased to present artists from Winter Opera’s upcoming production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado including Soprano Kathleen Jasinskas, Tenor Isaiah Bell, Mezzo-Soprano Lindsey Anderson, Baritone John Stephens and many more.

Wine & appetizers will be served at 6:30pm with dinner to follow at 7:30pm. Flapper attire is encouraged, black tie is optional. Cost is $125 per person and includes Italian wines & prosecco throughout the evening, dinner and entertainment. Proceeds to benefit Winter Opera’s Sixth Season. 

Tickets to the 1920s Masquerade Ball as well as Winter Opera’s upcoming season including Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado on November 9th (8pm) and 11th (3pm), Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe on February 8th (8pm) and 10th (3pm) and Puccini’s Tosca on March 8th (8pm) and 10th (3pm) are available by calling the Winter Opera Saint Louis Box Office at 314-865-0038 or by visiting http://www.winteroperastl.org/ See you at the Masquerade Ball!

Video Preview of "Das Rheingold"

Union Avenue Opera's production of Das Rheingold continues its run this weekend, August 24 & 25. Check out this video preview of the production:


Be sure to click here and read what the critics have to say about the production!

Das Rheingold continues its run this weekend: August 24 & 25 at Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd. All performances begin at 8:00pm. Production sung in German with projected English supertitles. Tickets may be purchased online at www.unionavenueopera.org or by calling 314-361-2881.