‘Messiah’ performance set Dec. 3 at the Glenn Massay Theater

Handel’s “Messiah” will be performed Sunday, Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Glenn Massay Theatre. Admission is free. Seating will be first-come first-served. The performance features 15 soloists and a 25-piece orchestra, with Terri Pontius conducting. This will be the 26th annual community “Messiah” performance in the Mat Su.

“Messiah” puts to music the birth, sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, quoting scriptures from the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible. Consider these familiar verses: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel” Isaiah 7:14. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” Isaiah 9:6. ”I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” Job 19:25.

Participating in “Messiah” as a listener or participant can be inspiring. “Years ago I was singing Handel’s ‘Messiah’ with a group of people from different faiths…. During one particular practice [as I sang] “Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” Isaiah 53:4, I knew with all my soul that he had done that for me. For a moment the 300 other voices became a whisper and I felt like I was all alone with the Lord. I felt His love and reassurance that he had carried the griefs and the sorrows of my teenage heart, and he would continue to walk with me for the rest of my life,” shared Sharon Larson, a worldwide leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Handel was born in Germany into a religious, affluent household. His father was a celebrated surgeon. At age 11 Handel played the organ so brilliantly his father permitted him to pursue music. He wrote his first opera at age 18. He worked as a musician, composer and conductor in Italy and Germany, and then moved permanently to London where more entrepreneurship was available to him and where he wrote Italian operas, according to “The Glorious History of Handel’s Messiah” by Jonathan Kandell in Smithsonian Magazine.

After twenty years, he moved from composing opera to composing more sacred oratorios.

Late one August afternoon, Handel returned to his home to find that “a poet and previous collaborator, Charles Jennens, had left him a manuscript. This libretto quoted liberally from the scriptures, particularly the words of Isaiah, foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ and describing His ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The work was to be an oratorio…. ‘Comfort Ye,’ the first words of the manuscript, seemed to leap from the page. They dissipated dark clouds that had been pressing upon Handel for so long. A familiar melody Handel had composed earlier flooded into his mind as he read ‘For unto Us a Child Is Born’” according to Spencer Condie, in “Handel and the Gift of Messiah,” Ensign.

Deeply moved and inspired by Jennens’ libretto, Handel set to work on it right away. Handel composed “Messiah” somewhere between three and four weeks in August and September 1741. “He would literally write from morning to night,” says Sarah Bardwell of the Handel House Museum in London. Upon completing “Messiah,” Handel humbly acknowledged, “God has visited me,” writes Condie. When composing the “Hallelujah’’ chorus, Handel said that he “saw heaven opened and the great God himself,’’ writes Matthew Guerrieri in The Boston Globe.

Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742 and then was repeated in London. During the Dublin debut the ladies wore dresses “without Hoops” in order to make room for more attendees, according to Kandell. During one of the first performances, when the contralto Susannah Cibber, then embroiled in a scandalous divorce, had finished “He was despised,” a gentleman exclaimed, “Woman, for that may all thy sins be forgiven!”

It is customary for audiences to stand as the “Hallelujah Chorus” is sung, and there are several stories regarding the origin of this tradition, although what happened for certain is unclear. The most common theory is “that King George II attended the London premiere of ‘Messiah’ in March of 1743, and was so moved by the ‘Hallelujah’ that he stood up, and if the king stands, everybody stands,” according to Guerrieri.

It is with great joy that we praise our Lord Jesus Christ next Sunday with selections from Handel’s “Messiah.” Please join us.

The performance is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Beth Wright has lived in the valley since 1990. She is a mother and grandmother, and enjoys hiking, cycling, writing and music. She volunteers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.