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Handel's Messiah in Arabic, French, Inuttitut, First Nations dialects


shootingstar

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Proof, that strong diversity in the production and cast....creates great performances.  It's free but they appreciate a donation. It's gotten a global audience.

So what if it's not Christmas.. production video access ends next wk.

https://atgtheatre.com/upcoming/messiah-complex/learn-more/

With its daring film version of Handel’s Messiah, a small Canadian theatre company defied the pandemic and thrived

Brad Wheeler

Published January 22, 2021 Updated 21 hours ago

Open this photo in gallery 

Where Against the Grain productions rarely exceed 1,000 tickets sold, the ticket registrations for Messiah/Complex climbed to more than 30,000 through the company’s website.

Alistair Maitland/Handout

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown on live performances, Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre abandoned its planned Messiah stage production this past December. Instead, the tiny company partnered with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on Messiah/Complex, an ambitious film adaptation of Handel’s beloved masterpiece that they billed as a “timeless piece of music with a distinctly Canadian twist.”

There was a twist all right. Where most symphony orchestras and opera companies are downsizing and scrapping productions within unfavorable creative conditions and daunting financial circumstances, Against the Grain hit the jackpot with Messiah/Complex. The 80-minute film has drawn more than 100,000 YouTube views, along with cash donations from 28 countries (there is no charge to watch it online).

Hoping to break even with its pandemic pivot, Against the Grain turned a small profit. By any measure, Messiah/Complex (which streams until the end of the month) has been the gutsy company’s most successful production ever – a viral hit, thanks (in part) to the virus.

“Had there been no pandemic. this film would not have been made,” says Joel Ivany, ATG’s artistic director. “Because the pandemic forced me to be creative in how we approached it, that just made the reach far greater than anything we’ve ever done before.”

 

Clearly an online film would be accessible to a much wider audience than a local limited-run production or even a national touring show could ever tap. Where Against the Grain productions rarely exceed 1,000 tickets sold, the ticket registrations for Messiah/Complex climbed to more than 30,000 through the company’s website.

A film adaptation of the baroque-era oratorio widened Ivany’s creative canvas as well. For Messiah/Complex, four choirs, including the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, were commissioned. A boldly diverse group of 12 soloists representing every province and territory sang in French, Arabic, English and a variety of Indigenous dialects, all filmed in eye-catching vistas.

Gay Chinese-Canadian tenor Spencer Britten sang Comfort Ye My People wearing a black velvet tuxedo while walking in black stilettos in downtown Vancouver. Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds performed her aria in Inuttitut, filmed in Petty Harbour, N.L. Tunisian-Canadian Rihab Chaieb put a secular spin on He Was Despised in Montreal.

The provocative presentation of the Bible-based text stirred a media swell that included multiple features in The Globe and Mail and The New York Times. “A Messiah for the multitudes, freed from history’s bond,” the latter publication heralded. The BBC picked up the story. And the strong endorsement on social media from author Margret Atwood could only boost interest.

What it all means for ATG and the TSO is still being considered by those two organizations.

“It’s opened our eyes as far as how we rethink projects,” Ivany says. “It’s hard to imagine going back to the smaller audiences of maybe 1,500 when you’ve had 100,000 people view your last project.”

 

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1 hour ago, groupw said:

This was created by a friend’s son in law. I met him and his wife when I photographed my friend’s daughter’s wedding. A wonderful couple. 

 

The Canadian production is poignant and joyous.. Each piece is shot in different parts of Canada...  For a global audience, it shows the breadth, diversity of geography, language in 1 common music piece.  It's very creative and modern interpretation.  

At approx.  20 min. mark, then later 48 min. onward, fabulous performances...

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8 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

The Canadian production is poignant and joyous.. Each piece is shot in different parts of Canada...  For a global audience, it shows the breadth, diversity of geography, language in 1 common music piece.  It's very creative and modern interpretation.  

At approx.  20 min. mark, then later 48 min. onward, fabulous performances...

Shootingstar you hit a home run with this post. Amazingly beautiful. I’m still watching on my IPad and making this comment from my phone.

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10 hours ago, groupw said:

This was created by a friend’s son in law. I met him and his wife when I photographed my friend’s daughter’s wedding. A wonderful couple. 

 

Somewhere in this whole crowd, some singers if someone nurtured them... It was a cute video. Takes alot of coordination.

In the Messiah link I gave, a Canadian Inuk from Newfoundland and Labrador,  who sings one of the librettos says this:

ome history… about 250 years ago, missionaries of the Moravian faith settled on the North Coast of Labrador. With them, they brought hand-written music by Handel, Mozart, Bach, and many other composers. Not many people realize that what we think of as European classical music had its North American premiere in these beautiful, humble churches along the north coast of Labrador, in Inuit communities— yes, Inuit were performing on strings, brass, organs, and singing music from Handel’s Messiah in Inuttitut hundreds of years ago, here in Labrador.

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Super. And what a great choice of music! When Joseph Haydn, one of the greatest Classical Era composers, went to London and heard Handel's Messiah, he cried out during the Hallelujah Chorus, "I am nothing. I am nothing."

Why couldn't Mozart find his friend?

Because he was Haydn.

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