MUSIC LOVERS, passersby and huddles of tourists looked relieved at having stumbled on signs of life in the capital on an ash-grey Easter Monday.
Between them, they filled Dublin's Fishamble Street at lunchtime yesterday for the annual open-air performance of Handel's Messiah, on the street where it had its world premiere on the same day in 1742.
The first time around, when the oratorio was performed in the Old Music Hall, gentlemen were asked not to wear their swords, nor ladies their hooped skirts, and sedan chairs were banned from the street.
Faulkner's Dublin Journalrecorded at the time how the sublime Messiah"conspired to transport and charm the ravished heart and ear" at its inaugural performance.
Suitably transported and duly charmed, the crowd of hundreds stood in perfect silence yesterday as the men and women of Our Lady’s Choral Society, conducted by Prionnsias Ó Duinn and joined by members of the National Sinfonia, marked the 267th anniversary of that performance by singing a selection of its soaring choruses.
“If Handel were alive today, he’d be a millionaire on that chorus alone,” said Ó Duinn of the famous Hallelujah movement. It went down so well they sang it twice.
This being the 250th anniversary of the German composer's death, the Dublin Handel Festival has been extended to include a range of new events aimed at families and children. Running until Sunday, it includes a historical walking tour, a talk on fashion and shopping in Handel's Dublin and an exhibition of the manuscript score for Messiah.
Handel with Care, performed by comic duo The Classic Buskers, takes place at the Chester Beatty Library tomorrow.
“We’ve put together a broad mix of indoor and outdoor events which includes new events as well as some of the very popular traditional performances at Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral,” said Dermot McLaughlin, chief executive of Temple Bar Cultural Trust, which organises the festival.
Officially opening the festival, Dublin’s Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne drew attention to the “great sense of continuity” to be found in standing on the same street where Messiah was first given to the world more than 250 years ago. “Despite all the ups and downs along the way, we’re still here,” she said.
Tonight, on the anniversary of George Frideric Handel’s death, Our Lady’s presents a commemorative concert of the German composer’s greatest choral works at the National Concert Hall.
For further details of the Dublin Handel Festival, contact the Temple Bar Cultural Information Centre, 12 East Essex Street (01-8883610, www.templebar.ie).