Frank McNamara knows he's crazy. Well, at least he knows people think he is crazy. A look of disbelief may come across their faces at any one of several moments. It can be when they first hear that McNamara has composed a reinterpretation of Handel's Messiah. It may be when they hear that the production will star Gladys Knight (without the Pips), Chaka Khan and Roger Daltry. Or it may be when they hear that the entire production will have all of three days rehearsal before it debuts on December 4th at Dublin's RDS.
"Oh sure people think I'm crazy," says McNamara good-naturedly over a late lunch at a restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport. He has been in town for just three days to meet Chaka Khan and Roger Daltry. Now he is on his way to Atlanta to meet Gladys Knight for the first time.
"I just thought it would be great to do a pop version of the Messiah," says McNamara. "There are great tunes in it. The purists are not going to be happy, but some of those people think the Messiah should only be performed using early instruments. I am not a musical elitist. This is music for the guy who maybe never listened to classical music before. At the end of the day, music is entertainment. I don't think it should be challenging."
While those are indeed statements that are not going to endear McNamara to musical purists, he might have something of a point. When Messiah debuted at the New Musick-Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin on April 13th, 1742, Handel's librettist Charles Jennens described it as "an entertainment". In fact, Handel had composed the piece in three weeks. It is said that the simplicity of its scoring was because Handel saw it as a "travelling" oratorio, and was up to the last minute uncertain about the size and composition of the orchestra that would actually perform it. If Handel had a sense of fidelity to his original composition, it soon evaporated. He made significant changes to the piece in 1745, and again in 1750. And that is part of McNamara's insistence that Handel's work can and should be modified and updated to reflect a modern sensibility. As for his own composition or re-interpretation, he says: "Some of the pieces I've done are very close to the original. Some are not. It depends on whether the original can slip into popular idiom or not."
The plan for McNamara's Los Angeles trip was to spend a day in rehearsal with Chaka Khan and one with Roger Daltry. But it didn't work out that way. McNamara waited for Khan, a legendary seven-time Grammy-award winner and rock diva, to appear at a rehearsal studio in the San Fernando Valley that he had rented for the day. No, she would not be there, it turned out. She wanted to meet at her sister's house. By the time McNamara and Khan met, it was evening and there was no time for rehearsal. A diplomatic McNamara thanked Khan for the six-pack of Guinness she brought along as a gift - (he doesn't drink Guinness) - and they discussed Messiah for a little over half-an-hour. Yes, they would see each other on December 1st in Dublin for rehearsal.
The next day with Roger Daltry went a bit better. Daltry, the former lead singer of The Who, showed up at the studio appearing relaxed, fit, and younger than his years. Daltry, an Englishman, said he was in the "cultural wasteland" of Los Angeles in connection with a television show. As McNamara sits at an electric piano, Daltry relaxes on a couch and looks at the sheet music he has been handed. They discuss which keys are best for Daltry to sing in. Daltry starts yodelling. "My voice isn't warmed up," he says as he tries unsuccessfully to hit a few notes.
"That's okay," soothes McNamara. "The main point today is for us to meet." Daltry stares at the music sheets. "What's it about? I don't know the piece at all," he says. "Oh that's okay, nobody else does either. It's basically Biblical stories. The story of Jesus, you know," says McNamara as he tinkles on the keyboard, humming the score. "What's that note there you hit?" asks Daltry. "A," replies McNamara. Daltry suggests they move up a note. "That's where my voice really becomes alive," says Daltry. "I've got a really loud voice." "That's great," says McNamara.
And so it goes. And the end of the two-hour session, McNamara says he will send demo cassettes to London shortly, transposed into Daltry's keys. He will do the same for Knight and Khan. "These people rehearse in their cars," says McNamara. "They're all professionals. They'll get it. You'd be surprised."
In all, the new Messiah production will feature 45 instruments in the orchestra, a classical choir and a gospel choir. All together there will be 140 people on stage. Khan will have two solos, as will Daltry and Knight. Each of the four soloists, including Jeffrey Osborne, will have two duets. At the end of the two-hour show, the four soloists will sing together. By any estimation, the production is a massive undertaking, to which the State's Millennium Committee contributed £700,000, and whose sponsors include Delta, Jurys, RTE, The Irish Times, and others.
Given the nature of it all, it is somewhat strange to watch McNamara all on his own in an airport, his cell phone ringing away, as he makes final arrangements to get to Atlanta in a few hours. He has heard that Knight may actually be in Los Angeles and he doesn't want to board an aeroplane until he confirms that she is indeed in Atlanta. The lack of preparation time and rehearsal times does not, however, seem to bother him. "Hey, it's great that I got to meet them at all. I'd hate to be doing this without ever having met them at all," he says enthusiastically. "It's going to be great. Wait till you hear those voices together. We went through all kinds of permutations of thinking of different voices before we settled on these four."
With that, suitcase in one hand and laptop computer containing the score of the new Messiah in the other, McNamara is off.
Messiah XXI will be performed on December 4th and 5th at the RDS, Dublin
