It's been many, many years since I made it to a Handel's Messiah sing-along, not least of which is because we have always traveled off to California for Christmas. But we're here this year, and I did some digging and found the Denver Interfaith Messiah Sing-Along over at Hope United Methodist in Greenwood Village tonight …
https://denverinterfaithmessiah.weebly.com/
… and dragged the whole family along.
It was a blast. Even the choruses I've never sung and had to sight-read / listen-nearby for. Regardless of the religious sentiment, the music is beautiful, and belting some of those choruses out is an awesome experience.
Honestly, aside from one sing-along mumble decades ago, and listening to recordings, I haven't done a mostly sing-through of Messiah since college. Ditto Margie, who noted that her range had dropped a bit from her soprano days, and James had only ever sung the Hallelujah Chorus, and Jim hadn't sung it since his college days, and …
No matter. Great fun.
I'll be definitely aiming to do this next year.
I was in the Choral society in college (Trinity College Dublin). Messiah was sort of our "home" piece (because Dublin), and among my favourite memories are taking it on tour, to Scotland and France. I fondly remember an elderly French gentleman earnestly explaining, with tears in his eyes, how he had only ever heard it sung "like brass" before, and what a delight it was to hear it sung "as woodwind" thanks to our soft Irish voices…
Hell of a piece. It's been too long.