These days, thanks to the intense rehearsals for Carthage’s “Elixir of Love” for which I am music director, I am feeling absolutely immersed in music, but very busy making it versus taking it in – especially with the Carthage music calendar mostly dormant in the month of January, thanks to J-Term. There are no student or faculty recitals nor departmental recitals, nor any concerts by our ensembles. There are performances this coming weekend of the musical “Next to Normal,” which I’m anxious to see since I have a couple of voice students in the cast, but otherwise I have had almost opportunity whatsoever to be an audience member over the last several weeks. That’s one reason why it was so nice to be able to step away from “Elixir” this past Sunday and journey to downtown Chicago with members of Holy Communion’s senior choir to experience something called Too Hot to Handel. It’s Handel’s Messiah, his greatest work and the most famous and beloved of all oratorios, but done in the style of Black Gospel. The liberties taken with the score a fairly dramatic, and in a few movements it’s a little bit tricky to detect any hint whatsoever of Handel’s original melodic and harmonic themes – but for the most part the music is emphatically Handel’s, but done with an invigoratingly fresh twist.
Our field trip, if you want to call it that, was the idea of two of our newest choir members, the Albrights, who have attended this particular production for the last several years and were incredibly anxious for the rest of us to experience it as well. They said it would be fun and thrilling and moving- and they were right. One thing I don’t was mentioned early on, at least as far as I can remember, and something that never dawned on me even as we were walking into Chicago’s Auditorium Theater that afternoon, is that this performance was happening the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day- and what a marvelous way to celebrate the legacy of that extraordinary man who did so much to help men and women of different backgrounds and cultures reach across the chasms that divided them. This particular performance seemed to be the perfect embodiment of that spirit- Georg Frederic Handel meets Aretha Franklin, if you will- and it made it all the more memorable and moving.
Did I love every moment of it? No. There were a few times when the “twist” didn’t quite work, particularly in its oddly understated arrangement of “The Trumpet Shall Sound” – give me Handel’s stirring original version anytime – and frankly, neither the mezzo nor soprano soloists blew me away the way tenor Roderick Dixon did. He was on fire from the get go, and part of what made him ideal for this gig is that he possesses a fantastic voice and a solid classical technique- plus astonishing ease in the Gospel style- and being so secure in both worlds was key to his spectacular success. The choir and orchestra were terrific, and the pianist was one of the major stars of the afternoon. That being said, his big tour de force was a dazzling medley that served up one excerpt after another from all kinds of songs, including “I Got Plenty of Nuttin” – and for as splendidly as he played, I had no idea what in the world this had to do with Handel’s Messiah. But I seem to have been in the decided minority on that, given on the audience was on its feet, cheering, by the time he was done. And by the time the chorus launched into its thrilling rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus, I was on my feet as well! Minor complaints aside, this treatment of Handel’s Messiah was surprisingly persuasive to me… and it was especially exciting to think of some of the people in that audience who were surely encountering Handel’s great oratorio – albeit in drastically transformed fashion – for the first time in their lives. And it was thrilling, as well, to be part of an audience of such varied colors, and to sense that all of us… black and white, young and old, Baptist and Lutheran, the milkman and the college professor… were powerless to resist the overwhelming spell of this music and these gifted musicians’ impassioned work!
There were lots of ancillary pleasures of the day- like the fact that it was our first big excursion in our new Highlander, which seats six really quite comfortably- or the fact that some of us ate lunch at Cosi where I could indulge myself in one of my favorite things: Steak and Cranberry Chili. (for a limited time only, the signs say.) And any chance to step into the Auditorium Theater, one of the oldest, largest and most beautiful performance spaces in the entire midwest, is cause for rejoicing. And speaking of that, someone in our group noticed some words engraved into the back wall of the first mezzanine. They are by President Benjamin Harrison from the hall’s dedication back in 1889. Aside from the somewhat sexist language, the words ring as true today as they did 124 years ago:
I wish that this great building may continue to be to all your population that which it should be: opening its doors from night to night, calling your people away from cares of business to those enjoyments and entertainments which develop the souls of men and inspire those whose lives are heavy with daily toil . . . and in this magnificent and enchanted presence, lift them for a time out of dull things into those higher things where men should live.
It didn’t occur to me until much later that what we saw and heard and experienced at “Too Hot to Handel” accomplished exactly that. It was as though the rest of the world, with all its cares and frustrations, winked out of existence for a time. It was great to be reminded of the power of music to lift us into a higher sphere. May we never ever take such a precious gift for granted.
pictured above: the musicians bring it home with the last measures of the Hallelujah Chorus, with the three soloists joining in with chorus and orchestra. It was fantastic.