SLSO would like to wish you Merry Christmas by playing Handel's full Messiah, which it turns out I don't believe I've ever seen before. I know I have recordings of it, but with music on iTunes these days, I find that I rarely listen to "albums" anymore, in the way they were traditionally intended. This is true for classical as well as other types of music.
Anywho, Messiah. I had heard it was originally intended as Easter music; like so many other things (I'm looking at you Thanksgiving, Halloween, Labor Day), it has been co-opted by Christmas. Now that I have seen it in in its entirety, I can see why that makes sense. It's the story of Christ, from start to finish and then some -- birth, shaming, crucifixion, resurrection, and the punishment of humanity. It's not an opera, but it does contain arias and recitatives for the four basic voice types: soprano, alto, tenor, bass. It is backed, most importantly for me, by a full chorus. I adore choral music, so even though I'm not much of a fan of the story, it was a win. It was a long show, but the nice thing about popular shows like Messiah is that they allow a little extra time for intermission, which gave us a few extra minutes to enjoy our drinks and snacks.
Work again interrupted our eating-out-post-symphony tradition, but we had a wonderful dinner at home. S manned the counter, and made a delicious white pesto pepperoni pizza (not something you see very often).
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