“His Messiah has disappointed me… I shall put no more Sacred Words into his hands, to be thus abused.” So wrote Handel’s waspish librettist Charles Jennens in 1743, clearly – and bafflingly – unimpressed by the composer’s masterpiece, a work that stands today at the pinnacle of the repertoire. If the original gave Jennens the vapours, one shudders to think what he would have suffered after seeing the costumes, dancing and light show that “enhanced” its latest incarnation at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Apoplexy, probably.
Classical Everywhere is a company that aims to change the way that music is presented, and it doesn’t mince its words. Its artistic director and conductor, Gregory Batsleer, goes for the jugular in his programme note: “Classical music is regarded as dull and stuffy. It is not a form of entertainment that most people can relate to.” Really? He plainly hasn’t been in an opera house recently. He has no doubt that composers “would approve of finding exciting new approaches to performing their music, especially in ways designed to augment and enhance the spirit and narrative”. That’s fine, but this Messiah had exactly the opposite effect, muddying its message, cluttering its presentation and crippling the flow of the narrative.
