NO sooner had the first bars of Handel's Messiah rung out over Dublin's Fishamble Street yesterday than a heckler stopped proceedings. The pint of George Frederic Handel (aka actor Bill Golden) appeared at the second storey window of an adjoining hotel, and said: "I thought I heard a familiar tune."
This is the sixth year that our Lady's Choir, led by Proinnsias O Duinn, has assembled for an outdoor performance of excerpts from the Work. The venue was the site of Mr Neal's Musick Hall where it was first performed on April 13th, 1742.
This year for the first time the Messiah in the Street has been joined by other events as part of an International Handel Fest that took place in Dublin over the weekend.
Ms Laura Magahy of Temple Bar Properties, who with Ross MacParland sponsored the event, noted that the crowd at the 255th anniversary of the work's first performance was the largest yet.
After Handel's interruption and short speeches by Ms Magahy, the Lord Mayor, Mr Brendan Lynch, and Mr O Duinn the performance began with And The Glory Of The Lord chorus.
After the final Worthy Is The Lamb chorus of the oratorio, the Hallelujah chorus got a resounding encore. The crowd, stretching from the corner of Christ Church Cathedral to the quays, was encouraged to throw their hands in the air at every "Hallelujah" and the spirit of Handel observed laconically that he was "thinking of entering that one in the Eurovision".
Other events in the fest have been similarly popular, with full houses at Friday night's performance of the 1742 version of the Messiah and Saturday's International Recital in Christ Church Cathedral.
The final event was a performance of Judas Maccabaeus in the Church of St Nicholas of Myra Francis Street yesterday afternoon. The oratorio is not as well known as the Messiah butt was more popular in Handel's time. In the 12 years between its completion and Handel's death it was performed 57 times.