Hallelujah Oratorio Society
Handel's Messiah

The last time I'd been to a Messiah concert was in 2000, but it was only a highlights concert. This isn't actually a bad idea, since the full thing is 2 1/2 hours, and the 2nd half of the oratorio isn't quite as good as the first half (Handel probably ran out of ideas towards the end).

I was seated in the gallery behind the orchestra. The view was bad, but the sound was okay and I got to see things like the orchestra using photocopied scores. Tsk.

The concert was presented by a very cheena group. The announcements and programme were bilingual and the performers list for the Hallelujah Chorus and Chorale was in Chinese (excepting Indonesian names).

The start of the Sinfonia felt very stilted and ponderous. Luckily it got better when it moved into the more legato part of the piece. Overall the interpretation was rather less legato than I liked, and it seemed the orchestration had been modified in some places, with trills cut out and some parts simplified. Perhaps due to my sitting above the division between the sopranos and altos, the lower strings sounded a bit strong.

When I saw there was a harpsichord/organ player listed on the program I was quite intrigued, since I didn't know there were any harpsichords in Singapore. But when it suddenly started producing organ sounds for Comfort Ye I got very pissed off and looked closer. It was in fact a synthesiser, cunningly disguised as a harpsichord: it was mounted where the keyboard of the real thing would be, but built or set into the frame of what looked like a harpsichord (complete with the section where the strings would've been, and a cover for it propped up with a piece of wood). The effect wasn't all that bad, since harpsichords produce a fairly uniform sound, so a synthesiser is less unfaithful to the real thing than it would be for a piano. But still. If nothing else, they should've listed the synthesiser player as playing a synthesiser, not the "harpsichord/organ"!

David Wilcocks had noted that the Tenor had "excellent diction, rhythm, and pitch" and indeed I found him to be the best soloist. One thing about soloists is that they tend to have a thick voice and use a lot of vibrato (maybe it's an opera tradition, it helps one's voice to carry, or it helps distinguish one's voice from that of the chorus/ensemble, but I personally think it sounds hideous). His was very clear.

And the Glory of the Lord saw a return of the ponderousness that characterised the start of the Sinfonia. If I'd closed my eyes I might have though I was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It put me in the mind of Zombie Jesus lumbering around and trying to eat my brains. The altos were particularly embalmed, and the sopranos busy blasting away.

In Thus saith the Lord, the bass soloist sounded like he was being shaken, and some unpinpointable quality being shaken out of his voice, making him sound a bit hollow. Luckily he recovered after this piece.

The alto soloist was horrible. She had perhaps the most lao char bor (old woman) voice I'd ever heard (too much resonance within the body rather than letting the sound out, due to an overuse of head voice if I remember the theory correctly). If she'd been a soprano she might still have been forgiven since that's a technique sometimes needed to hit high notes, but it was unforgivable in an alto. I was trying to think what was a better description of the singing: muffled or like a dead feathered chicken was stuffed down her throat; usually it comes along with vibrato but I don't think there was much of this today (you can tell my vocal theory is rusty). No one may abide the day of his coming, but with this rendition I'm taking leave a week before D Day. Since the orchestration of the air seemed simplified, there was less to distract me from the horrible sound. Luckily, in some other recitatives and airs, I couldn't hear her over the orchestra.

The chorus came on again, and with the waves of undead the scooping of the sops was added. The orchestra sounded oddly like it was farting though. From this point on though, the chorus and orchestra sounded better. Either they'd warmed up, the stuffiness of the concert hall (or where I was sitting, at least) was making me lose concentration or everyone sounded good after the alto soloist.

For Unto Us was okay musically, except that they managed to top some other choir's "The Prince of Piss" with "The Ever-Lusting Father". This particular mangling hadn't come to my mind before I heard it, so it cannot be the backmasking effect (hearing what you expect to hear). Gotta love Singaporean pronunciation. I don't know why they liked to blast so much in this and other choruses, though (sometimes even shouting, eg 'Surely'). They were very big already as it was, and the slightly mistimed blasts of "Wonderful. Counsellor" were unsettling.

The soprano soloist's pronunciation was a bit off (eg 'shay purds') but otherwise she was alright. Her voice was less thick than the alto soloist's (though how it could be thicker I do not know) and I could actually make out what she was singing.

For some reason, perhaps to make up for lost time, Rejoice was rushed. I was quite disappointed, since those wonderful coloratura passages could not then be demonstrated to good effect.

Listening to Messiah was a good time to ponder divine injustice: 'And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all'. More like the iniquity of the Lord.

After the intermission, the bass soloist seemed to have been infected by the alto, since it sounded like he had half a feathered chicken stuffed down his throat (this wouldn't have been so bad if it'd been a chicken transfer, but it turned out to be a chicken cloning since the alto was still singing the same way). At first I'd thought that the fact that the alto soloist was the one most easily drowned by the orchestra was due to the disadvantages of the alto range, but once the bass soloist had the same problem he got drowned by the orchestra sometimes as well, so it was the chicken after all; on further consideration I realise that when I'm not sitting behind the performers, although this mode of singing sounds hideous it also projects well, so it's probably a way to project one's voice forward, ensuring that those who buy $15 tickets and sit behind the performers get their money's worth.

Let Us Break was another chance to reflect on divine violence. Breaking the heathens with a rod of iron is fine, and dashing them into pieces like pottery is splendid, but it leaves out my absolute favourite bit: dashing babies on rocks. What was Jennens thinking?!

Hallelujah was the only chorus the soloists sang. I was very annoyed by this person in front of me: just because everyone is standing doesn't mean you should sing along. And badly too. Gah.

The Trumpet Shall Sound is one of my favourite pieces showcasing an instrument. It was okay except when the trumpeter tragically made a small misstep in the introduction. The drowning out of the bass soloist, with his post-intermission chicken, was especially clear in this air.


Elia Diodati's exellent attempt to characterise the sort of voice (feathered chicken in throat) that I am vainly trying to describe: muffled brilliance
if it were vocalized correctly, it would be 'colorful'
but somehow the voice is not aspirated

that kind of voice gives me the image
of swallowed cotton wool or singing into a glove

or perhaps more correctly, cotton wool stuck in the vocal cords
or even the trachea


They did the Magic Flute here this year. Argh.

The timpani guy was very free. He only needed to do work on 2 choruses.

I fully support copyright in perpetuity, since the ticket prices would've doubled and the profits would've gone to some corporation that had bought the rights to Messiah while Handel's relations were living in penury.