To celebrate the coming of the Christmas season the Hastings Philharmonic Choir will be performing Handel’s Messiah on November 10 at Christ Church, St Leonards.
The choir’s conductor, Marcio da Silva tells us: “The last time the Hastings Philharmonic Choir performed Messiah was on November 19, 2011 conducted by my predecessor Hilary Davan Wetton.
“This will be the second time I will have conducted this piece, the first being in Dorset three years ago. It has, however, has been present in my musical life from the very beginning. The first time I performed it, as a boy soprano, was in 1994 in a fully staged production with ballet, chorus and soloists that was performed in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I have very vivid memories of that production. I performed it again one year later.
“I also have very strong memories of watching, over and over again, a version of it conducted by Sir ColIn Davis, whom I came to meet later in life. After my voice changed I studied two of the bass arias “The trumpet shall sound” and “But who may abide”. Later on as a tenor I learned and performed all arias.
For a long time “Comfort ye” was my audition aria. I also sang it in the chorus during the only slightly longer period that I spent in Brazil in 2007 before going to study conducting in Germany which was also an important moment in my life. All of this is to say that I have extensively enjoyed this piece in many different ways and I hope to make that transpire through our performance on November 10.”
Seats can be booked through the Choir’s website. Prices start at £12.50 and the performance commences at 7pm.
Image Credits: Hastings Philharmonic Choir .