The much-anticipated annual event that heralds in the Christmas season in Monaco proved even more popular this year as the Principality’s Anglican Church reverberated to the glorious sounds of Handel’s Messiah on Saturday, November 23.
The church was full to overflowing as so many people wanted to experience the recital, under the baton of Errol Girdlestone. Occupants of pews that usually seat three people were approached by volunteer ushers to make room for an extra person, an accommodation that wasn’t always possible.
Soprano Elenor Bowers-Jolley returned for the eighth year and was in fine form, with Clint Van der Linde as alto, Irishman Andrew Gavin as tenor, and Monaco’s own Thonas Dear as bass, all giving sterling performances. Each one of the soloists had their own story of how they came to be chosen, by Errol, to be singing so splendidly together in Monte-Carlo.
One of the wonderful aspects of Girdlestone’s Messiah is that each year there are differences, nuances, that add the spice of unpredictability to a piece first performed in 1742, in Dublin.
And so it was ‘Wonderful,’ delivered with such strength by the Choir that took me by surprise as the singers rendered one of the most uplifting passages of the oratorio: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
Peace, or rather the lack of it, lies at the core of the Messiah. Rhetorically, Handel asked the age-old question: “Why do the Nations so furiously rage together…”
As the world witnesses unspeakable catastrophes, wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Handel speaks to us from almost three hundred years ago with the voice of unflinching faith and the hope of peace.
This year’s audience was as appreciative as ever, and under Errol’s indefatigable baton, Saint Paul’s was offered the Hallelujah Chorus as an encore.
PHOTOS: Martina Brodie
