Great Bend Chorale: Handel's 'Messiah'
$20 ($16 senior/military)
José Luis Muñoz, counter-tenor
Eric Neuville, tenor
Tess Altiveros, soprano
Charles Robert Stephens, bass
Handel – Messiah
Handel never settled on a single, definitive form of Messiah. After its 1741 premiere, he continually revised individual movements to please the tastes of financial supporters or showcase the skills of different soloists. For the next 18 years, while differing versions of individual movements steadily accumulated, Handel would pick and choose among the options to create a sequence of movements most likely to showcase the forces available. In celebration of the work’s 275th anniversary and Great Bend’s inaugural concerts, we’ll do the same.
We’ll mix and match movements to feature rarely performed elements of the original 1741 version, while also tracing the evolution of some now beloved movements that were not a part of the famous Dublin premiere. And because one of our soloists will be Seattle counter-tenor José Luis Muñoz, we’ll pay particular attention to the 1749 Guadagni variations. Also featuring GRAMMY winning tenor Eric Neuville, soprano Tess Altiveros, and bass Charles Robert Stephens.