Vancouver Bach Choir, Handel’s Messiah, Orpheum

Laura and I loved the Vancouver Bach Choir performing Handel’s Messiah at the Orpheum.  Leslie Dala was the superb conductor, Melody Courage, the truly amazing soprano, Marion Newman, the exquisite Mezo Soprano, Asitha Tennekoon, the gifted tenor, and Clarence Frazer, the riveting Bass Baritone. The members of the Vancouver Bach Choir made the Hallelujah chorus a must experience, the whole of the orpheum audience standing to join in this truly unforgettable celebration of life and love. 

I’ve loved Bach since college days when I first heard  Brandenburg Concertos.  Imagine a Bach Choir! The very best.  About the same time I fell in love with Handel’s Water Music. However it was Dr. Anna Borowska , the soprano physician who opened my ears to the Messiah. She’d organized drop in Messiah at St. John’s Shaughnassey one afternoon and invited me.  What a spiritually moving experience to hear the Messiah almost as a flash mob by all these lovers of Handel and transcendent music. 

Bach is from the Baroque era living 1685-1750. The Vancouver Bach Choir was founded in 1930.  Handel was Bach contemporary living 1865 to 1759, writing the Messiah in 1741, drawing from the King James Bible and Coverdale Psalter The Messiah was first performed in Dublin 1742 and a year later in London. 

Laura and I, in December  2010,  attended our first experience of the Vancouver Bach Choir with the VSO performing Handel at the Orpheum.  We were there with our violinist social worker friend Anne and her conductor husband Ivan. I will always remember that mystical evening of the finest music and most refined friends. Now here we were again after Covid disrupted the finest Christmas tradition, touched once more in advent by the celebration of the coming of the Lord. 

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!