Portland Public Library

Messiah, oratorio in three parts, HWV 56, 1742, George Frideric Handel ; text by Charles Jennens, based on the Bible ; staged version by Claus Guth, Konrad Kuhn and Christian Schmidt ; from the Theater an der Wien

eng

videorecording

Messiah

680744115

Recorded in performance Mar. 3-4, 2009, Theater an der Wien

George Frideric Handel ; text by Charles Jennens, based on the Bible ; staged version by Claus Guth, Konrad Kuhn and Christian Schmidt ; from the Theater an der Wien

154

oratorio in three parts, HWV 56, 1742

"Central to the plot is the story of three men, perhaps three brothers, and the family entanglements bound up with their wives and children. One of the men commits suicide, after which the action onstage follows the attempts of the survivors to come to terms with what has happened. The burial is a fixed point and is followed by the events that led up to it and then by the question: "What comes next?" This approach gives concrete expression to a recurrent theme in Messiah: the category of human doubt. The abstract, philosophical layer of the score, the voice of God and the inner voices of the characters are taken by the chorus, which is choreographically involved in the action, as is the aforementioned dancer, who embodies not only the sufferings of Christ but also the life of the suicide victim after he has killed himself. Mention should also be made of a figure described as a "sign language performer", who accompanies the orchestral introduction, for example."--Booklet

live action