Sydney’s biggest Hallelujah! Handel: Messiah at Sydney Opera House

Two hundred and eighty years since it was first performed in Dublin in 1742, Handel’s Messiah remains one of the most loved pieces of classical music in the world, performed by hundreds of thousands of singers around the globe every Christmas.

This December it comes alive in spectacular form, presented by Australia’s leading choral organisation on the country’s most renowned concert stage, conducted by the inimitable Brett Weymark.

With a sublime cast of soloists including Lorina Gora, Ashlyn Tymms – making her Sydney Opera House debut, Nicholas Jones, and Morgan Pearse, and one of the most powerful Christmas choirs Sydney has ever seen, it’s going to be a mighty season of performances.

Join Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for this momentous performance of Messiah – the first in Sydney Opera House’s newly refurbished Concert Hall, 8pm Thursday December 8, 1pm Saturday & Sunday December 10 and 11.

This year’s concerts mark 100 years since Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ [or Hurlstone Park Choral Society as it was known then] first performed Messiah in December 1922, and rest assured, it’s with good reason that the work remains a highlight of Sydney’s concert calendar a century later.

Each year Sydney Philharmonia Choirs invites members of the community to join its Christmas Choir, providing a rare opportunity to join forces with their auditioned singers, a professional orchestra, and world-renowned soloists, for a series of Christmas concerts, on a world-class concert stage.

A new partnership with Wollongong Conservatorium of Music in 2022 has seen this Christmas Choir swell to over 480 singers from across Sydney and the Illawarra. Add Sydney Philharmonia’s own auditioned choirs to the mix, and special guest partners, Parramatta’s River City Voices, and an awe-inspiring choral force of almost 700 singers will give voice to Messiah’s choruses.

If you’ve never heard a mass choir enforce before, now is the perfect time to add this to your bucket list! Expect luminous arias, soaring harmonies, powerhouse choruses, and a concert hall crowd buoyed with Christmas cheer.

Enjoying a live performance of Messiah at Christmas time is as heart-warmingly nostalgic as it gets; a must-see, for anyone longing for a dash of good old Christmas tradition.

We recommend booking now to guarantee your seat, and bringing friends, kids, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and anyone else whose heart needs some warming after too many special occasions spent in iso.

Come on Thursday evening December 8 and make a night of it exploring Sydney’s Christmas lights, or for the matinee weekend performances December 10 and 11, and head across to The Rocks Christmas Markets, where you’re sure to find a roasting chestnut or two.

For those who aren’t familiar with Handel’s masterpiece, here are a few fun facts from Messiah’s early beginnings:

• Handel composed Messiah in just twenty-four days, an incredible feat, given the original score is 259 pages.
• The work is an oratorio, which is sort of like an opera in that it is narrative driven but is focused solely on performance of the musical work without the distraction of costume, scenery, or action. Unlike opera, an oratorio also usually tells a story from the Bible, rather than a racy one.
• Written in three parts, to depict the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Messiah was always intended for the Lenten Christian season. Almost 90 years after it was first performed, the Victorians moved it to Christmas, to revive interest in that then-neglected Christmas holiday.
• The work premiered in Dublin on April 13, 1742, and was presented as a benefit, with the funds raised used to help some of the inmates stuck in debtors’ prison. Handel was at the time in dire financial straits himself, and his generosity was later repaid abundantly.
• The first performance of Messiah in London was not such a success – a disaster really. Society was outraged that this religious work was being performed not in a church, but a theatre, and by secular singers to boot. It was only when Handel gave all the proceedings from a performance in 1750 to a charity – The Foundling Hospital for orphaned children – that London eventually came around.
• Handel continued to hold benefit concerts of Messiah in the Foundling Hospital’s chapel for many years and is recognised along with artist William Hogarth as playing an essential role in helping philanthropist Thomas Coram realise his vision of caring for and educating England’s most vulnerable citizens.
• After Handel’s death in 1759 Messiah took off like wildfire around the globe – first performed in America in 1770, in Germany in 1772, and making its way to Australia for a first performance in 1836.
• There is a curious tradition at performances of Messiah of audiences standing for the famous Hallelujah chorus. It is said to have been started by King George II, who, upon hearing the work for the first time, was so dazzled and overcome with emotion, that he leapt to his feet. Back then when the king rose, everyone rose. However, it’s almost certainly untrue: there’s no evidence that George II ever attended a performance of Messiah, and the first record of the audience standing “together with the king” comes from 1780 by which time both Handel and George II were both dead. These days, it has become a charming historical curiosity and a bit of fun audience participation.
• All we can say is don’t be surprised if you find yourself suddenly springing from your seat also. You might be thinking “oh no, not me”, but like a scene from Stranger Things, singers and non-singers alike can’t help but be drawn to their feet in the heady atmosphere of a packed concert hall, under the spell of Handel’s most stirring composition.

Founded in 1920, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s leading, largest and longest-standing choral organisation, working with more than 700 singers across six choirs.

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Season Details

Venue: Sydney Opera House| Concert Hal
Date: 08 – 11 Dec 2022

For more information click HERE