10 minute read
HANDEL'S MESSIAH
Friday, December 8, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 2:30 pm
ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL
Ken-David Masur, conductor
Hannah Sheppard, soprano
Ashley Suresh, soprano
Mary Rafel, alto
Scott Bass, countertenor
Nicholas Lin, tenor
David Govertsen, bass
Milwaukee Symphony Chorus
Cheryl Frazes Hill, director
Program
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Messiah, HWV 56
PART I
1. Sinfonia (Overture)
2. Arioso (Tenor): Comfort ye, my people
3. Aria (Tenor): Ev’ry valley shall be exalted
4. Chorus: And the Glory of the Lord
5. Recitative (Bass): Thus saith the Lord
6. Aria (Alto): But who may abide the day of his coming?
7. Chorus: And he shall purify
Recitative (Alto): Behold, a virgin shall conceive
8. Air and Chorus (Alto): O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
9. Arioso (Bass): For behold, darkness shall cover the earth
10. Air (Bass): The people that walked in darkness
11. Chorus: For unto us a child is born
12. Pifa (Pastoral Symphony)
Recitative (Soprano): There were shepherds abiding in the field
13. Arioso (Soprano): And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them
Recitative (Soprano): And the angel said unto them
14. Arioso (Soprano): And suddenly, there was with the angel
15. Chorus: Glory to God in the Highest
16. Air (Soprano): Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion
IN TERMISSION
PART II
19. Chorus: Behold the Lamb of God
20. Air (Alto): He was despised
21. Chorus: Surely he hath borne our griefs
22. Chorus: And with his stripes we are healed
23. Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray
24. Arioso (Tenor): All they that see him laugh him to scorn
25. Chorus: He trusted in God
33. Chorus: The Lord gave the word
34a. Duet/Chorus/Air (Soprano): How beautiful are the feet of him
35a. Arioso and Chorus (Tenor): Their sound is gone out
36. Air (Bass): Why do the nations so furiously rage together?
37. Chorus: Let us break their bonds asunder
Recitative (Tenor): He that dwelleth in Heaven
38. Air (Tenor): Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron
39. Chorus: Hallelujah
PART III
41. Chorus: Since by man came death
42. Recitative (Bass): Behold, I tell you a mystery
43. Air (Bass): The trumpet shall sound
47. Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
The 2023.24 Handel’s Messiah is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND and ROCKWELL AUTOMATION
The length of this concert is approximately 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Guest Artist Biographies
HANNAH SHEPPARD
Soprano Hannah Sheppard has sung with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus since 2013, serving as a core member and section leader. Her long musical career began in Pittsburgh and includes performances as a cellist and as a vocalist in various productions as a child and young adult. Sheppard has most recently appeared as a soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah as the Knabe with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and as Serena in the short film Peace Offering. Prior to gracing Milwaukee’s musical stages, Sheppard enriched her craft as a college student in Washington, Pennsylvania, lending her voice to the Washington & Jefferson Choir and the W&J Camerata Singers. Currently residing in Milwaukee, she shares her life with her husband and their cherished canine companion, Wally, continuing to captivate audiences around the city and working as a clinical researcher.
ASHLEY SURESH
Ashley Suresh, soprano, has performed in numerous operas and musicals from a young age. She recently performed in the Milwaukee Ballet’s production of Dracula with The Florentine Opera Company. As a soloist, she has performed works such as Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Beloit Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Frazelle’s The Motion of Stone. While obtaining her Master of Music degree in vocal performance from Northwestern University, she sang the role of Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte with Northwestern Opera Theater and performed in a master class with the renowned Renée Fleming. She has performed with the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute in productions of La rondine, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Maria Stuarda. She debuted with Piedmont Opera in 2012 as Bridget Booth in Robert Ward’s The Crucible and is a recipient of the William R. Kenan Jr. Excellence Scholarship Award from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She currently resides in Wisconsin with her husband and son.
SCOTT BASS
Scott Bass (he/they) is a countertenor, songwriter, and multiinstrumentalist based out of Chicago, Illinois. Since receiving a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts in 2019, Bass has built up a vast portfolio of vocal, instrumental, composition, and production work. With multiple albums of original music recorded and released under their name and their solo project, base., Bass takes pride in the diversity of musical language, taking influence from a vast pool of musical history from sacred, pop, Baroque, and beyond. This is Bass’s first year singing with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, and Bass was previously featured in the semichorus of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in November 2023. Outside of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, Bass is a featured soloist with Kol Zimrah Jewish Community Singers, performing works by Jewish composers including Bernstein, Janowski, and more. Bass is also the Cantorial Soloist for Beth Chaverim Humanistic Jewish Community and has been featured singing with the Evanston Chamber Opera in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel as the Sandman, as well as leading the tenor section on the album Max Janowski - Great Works for the Max Janowski Society. This is Bass’s mainstage debut singing Messiah, and Bass is excited to share the brilliance of Handel’s works with you.
MARY RAFEL
Mary Rafel is an experienced and educated vocalist with over 17 years of choral experience and professional musicianship. Rafel has always been passionate about music and pursued it academically in her undergraduate studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree in voice. She continued her education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she earned her Master of Music degree, studying musicology and voice. It was then that her journey began as an alto in the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. Rafel has enjoyed being part of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus for over 12 years. In that time, she has sung a wide variety of repertoire, ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century. Rafel currently studies under the tutelage of Dr. Tanya Kruse-Ruck.
NICHOLAS LIN
Nicholas Lin is a tenor based out of Milwaukee and Chicago. He has performed with The Florentine Opera Company (chorus member in Rigoletto, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Il barbieri di Siviglia, and L’elisir d’amore), Music of the Baroque, Opera for the Young (Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville), and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. In 2023, he joined the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus as a paid core member. As a soloist, Lin has sung the tenor solo in Mozart’s Requiem for the Northwestern Summer Chorus and the role of Colas in South Loop Symphony’s semi-staged production of Bastien und Bastienne. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s voice and opera program, where he studied under Karen Brunssen. At Northwestern, Lin performed the roles of Orfeo (L’Orfeo), Frank (Die Fledermaus), The Keeper of the Madhouse (The Rake’s Progress), The Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe), the Learned Judge (Trial and Error), and chorus work in Don Giovanni, Theodora, and Béatrice et Bénédict. In the fall of 2019, he directed OPUS’s production of Arthur Honegger’s operetta Les aventures du roi Pausole at Northwestern. Music festivals he has performed in include Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine; Classical Lyrical Arts in Novafeltria, Italy; and International Lyric Academy in Vicenza, Italy.
DAVID GOVERTSEN
Chicago native David Govertsen has been active as a professional singer for nearly 20 years, portraying a wide variety of opera’s low-voiced heroes, villains, and buffoons. Govertsen has appeared as a soloist with numerous local and regional opera companies, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Tulsa Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Haymarket Opera Company. He is a member of the vocal chamber quartet Fourth Coast Ensemble, performing art song in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. As a concert soloist, Govertsen has performed with the Chicago, Detroit, and Madison symphony orchestras, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, among many others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2011 as the Herald in Otello with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center and the Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera apprentice programs and holds degrees from Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, and the College of DuPage. Govertsen is currently on faculty at North Park University, Lewis University, and the College of DuPage.
Program notes by Elaine Schmidt
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Messiah, HWV 56
Composed: 22 August – 14 September 1741
First performance: 13 April 1742; Dublin, Ireland
Last MSO performance: 18 December 2022; Ken-David Masur, conductor
Instrumentation: 2 oboes; bassoon; 2 trumpets; timpani; harpsichord; organ; strings
Approximate duration: 2 hours and 5 minutes
It’s a great story: a young German boy is forbidden by his father from having anything to do with “musical nonsense.” The boy sneaks a little keyboard instrument into the house and up to the attic, where he plays it when no one can hear him. He eventually becomes one of the most revered composers of the Baroque era. That is a true story of Handel’s childhood. He did eventually receive musical training, in Germany and in Italy, and began his career in Germany before moving permanently to England. There, he won the favor of audiences and royalty alike, building a reputation as one of the finest composers of the Baroque era and a successful, lucrative career.
Handel began his career in England by writing Italian operas, which were a favorite of audiences at the time. But public tastes changed, and he began writing English-language oratorios, which are loosely defined as operas presented without costumes or scenery, to keep his audiences happy.
Messiah, Handel’s oratorio based on the biblical Christmas story and the story of Christ’s suffering and death, is a departure from typical dramatic oratorio storytelling. Handel and his librettist, Charles Jennens, created a musical contemplation, or meditation, on the biblical stories rather than a literal retelling. Handel wrote Messiah in just three weeks during the summer of 1741, using a libretto Jennens had based on verses from the King James Bible and, to a lesser degree, the Church of England Book of Common Prayer.
Although Messiah was premiered in Dublin on 13 April 1742 (proceeds from the ticket sales went to charity) and was a resounding success, Londoners began complaining ahead of the 1743 London premiere that Bible verses had no place in a secular theater. The kerfuffle died down and Messiah clearly endured it unscathed.
As to why audiences stand up for the “Hallelujah” chorus? No one really knows. The accepted story is that King George II was so moved he stood when he first heard the “Hallelujah” chorus at the London premiere. The entire audience joined him because one never sat in front of a standing monarch. It’s a great story, but it didn’t appear until about 20 years after the London premiere, and there is no proof that it’s true. Nevertheless, here we are, 290 years after the London premiere, and I promise you that people will stand for the “Hallelujah” chorus.
