The chamber performances of Handel’s MESSIAH are filling fast for Sat & Sun 11 & 12 October at 2.00pm at St John’s Flinders and the following weekend at St John’s Sorrento. The beloved oratorio had its premiere in the unlikely venue of Neal’s Music Hall on Fishamble Street, Dublin on April 13 1742. Handel led an ensemble of 16 boy trebles, 16 male singers, 4 soloists and 32 instrumentalists. The Music Hall seated 600 (the same capacity as MTC’s Sumner Theatre) and an audience of 700 was squeezed in (ladies were asked not to wear hooped dresses and gentlemen were to leave their swords at home). The size of performances expanded in the Victorian era. A contemporary example is the gargantuan interpretation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
