Various Artists

Keith Lockhart, the conductor of the Boston Pops and orchestra conductor for the Handel’s Messiah Rocks album/DVD, states in his notes, “For 300 years now, people have been ‘updating’ Handel’s Messiah.  It was first updated by a man named Mozart who put it into more of what he thought the crowd of his generation would enjoy, and was continually ‘updated’ all the way through the 19^th century – so it’s only appropriate that it would happen again, now.”  He’s right, to a point.  Bands over the years have taken the most famous piece from the oratorio, the Hallelujah Chorus, and updated it (see: Relient K’s ska version).  But this 2009 rock oratorio is unique in that it takes selections from Handel’s entire 90 minute long piece and “updates” them, as Lockhart would say, for this generation.  Add in the Boston Pops and some Broadway and rock stars, and you have a new version of Handel’s Messiah, one that Rocks, as per the title.  So does it?

 Besides the fact that it’s annoying to me that Lockhart felt the need to put “updated” into quotation marks for no apparent reason, I understand his sentiment.  It’s the same reason that modern rock bands are putting out worship albums that are basically cover albums: taking familiar hymns and turning them into something a little more upbeat for the kids.  I find little wrong with that, though often I prefer the originals.  Call me stodgy, but I find the remakes often lacking, either in tone or lyric; the updates generally require something to be changed.  That is my feeling about this version of Messiah.  In the re-envisioning, I find something crucial to the performance lost.

The original oratorio is formed very specifically.  The most famous Christmas section, Part I, reflects the birth and ministry of Jesus Christ.  Part II is the Passion piece, chronicling the death and ascension of Jesus and the spread of the Gospel through the world.  Part III projects what Judgment Day will be like as per Revelation’s words.  Research has been done on how Handel intentionally uses word painting – the musical technique of having the melody mimic the literal meaning of its lyrics.  And truly Messiah is about the words reflecting God’s glory. 

In contrast, Handel’s Messiah Rocks sees the remake as posing “questions to the listener, no matter their orientation to faith or religion: ‘How will we be in the world now with each other? Can we love first?’”  This seems to place significantly less emphasis on the purpose of the oratorio which was to chronicle the life of Jesus Christ as Savior.  I see this as a desire to make the work accessible to those of all faiths, but was that the original intent?  How much does the hymn “Amazing Grace” lose when taking it out of the context of God’s amazing grace for us?  It loses the power behind the words, and I feel the same thing happens for Handel’s Messiah Rocks.

Original purpose aside, the actual performance of the piece is decent yet occasionally over-self-indulgent.  Most of the songs are sped up for the updated version, which gave the songs a nice rollicking feel.  The voices selected for the leads are strong, no doubt, giving that one is a Tony Award winner, one is a Tony Award nominee, and one was a finalist for the new front man of INXS.  The individuals – J. Robert Spencer, LaChanze, MiG Ayesa – are good performers and able to connect well with an audience as seen on the DVD.  Occasionally, their voices sounded strained, like they were trying far too hard to make this three hundred and fifty year old text sound edgy and new.  Occasionally their trills were too decorative and their sustained high notes flat.  As the tenor, MiG Ayesa has a great range, but why he insists on flattening out his vowels so thoroughly, I have no idea.  “He’ll Come in Glory” was a nice gospel rendition of the original, with LaChanze’s vocals well-suited to the song.  I enjoyed the songs such as “Rejoice” that required all three lead singers to harmonize. 

In a different vein, some of the songs bear little to no resemblance to the original songs, given their “updating,” such as “He was Despised.”   I think that is a real shame; it is less of an updating than a rewriting, which does not pay homage to Handel’s original work. 

A premiere question was about how “updated” they thought they were making the pieces.  The electric guitar is the most prominent feature, a sound I associate with the rock bands of the 80s and 90s – not current in the least.  While there are still popular rock bands who boast amazing electric guitar solos, it usually is not the musical focus, as bands head more in the “indie band” direction.  I was impressed, though, by the guitar duet at the beginning of “A Child is Born.”     

The actual DVD version is interesting, a concert type performance with live audience.  I’m not sure I understood what exactly they were trying to do with the chorus, a group of smiley t-shirt-wearing singers who roved around the stage singing background for whoever was singing lead at the time.  And really, fire on the screens for “He is Fire”?

Another question roaming around in my mind was, who is the audience for this?  The type of audience that loves and knows the original Messiah most likely will not enjoy this version, the vocal quality being far different from the original.  And the generation that may prefer this to traditional choral music will likely not understand the significance of the updating.  This may leave a crew somewhere in the middle who can understand both ends of the spectrum.  While I feel those are few, in looking at the live crowd on the DVD, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, though there were more than a few bemused faces during the “Hallelujah Chorus,” faces that did not know quite what to do.

What did they do with the “Hallelujah Chorus”?  It was a good choice by the director and adaptors to keep the original lyrics and melody of the chorus, given that it is the most well-known song of the oratorio.  Mostly what they did was infuse a lot of energy and shouting into the piece.  While the energy was entertaining, the shouting and added “Ah”s didn’t do much for me.

All in all, I don’t think this version is worth it.  Sure, the songs are modernized and made a bit catchier, but I’m not certain what was gained outweighs what was lost from the older version.  Maybe I’m just biased.  Maybe it was just the over showy-ness that turned me off, or the overabundant electric guitar solos, or the lack of emphasis on Jesus the Christ.  But give me the old version any day.  Some things just shouldn’t be “updated” quite so aggressively.

Tagged as: Handel's Messiah Rocks

↓ 4 comments

#1 John Wofford on December 11th, 2009 at 10:20 am

Sarah:

Handel’s Messiah has been presented in Jerusalem before, with an inter-faith choir of Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians, all of whom appreciated the aesthetic value of the piece. I don’t think it’s a great stretch to see persons of faith who structure their realities around the teachings of Jesus, without ascribing to substitutional atonement. Besides, Muslims understand Jesus to have been the Jewish messianic fulfillment, and Jews regard Jesus as a great rabbi.

Thanks for the great review!

John

#2 Sara on December 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm

John,

Thanks for informing me about the performances in other parts of the world. I agree that regardless of your faith background, the asthetics of a piece can have a heavy impact. I also understand that this performance was played on PBS, so less blatant emphasis on the Christian message may have been reflected in that. That being said, the promotional materials still rankled me a bit. I believe there to be different levels of enjoyment – one where you just like what the piece sounds like, and one where you believe what the piece is saying. Both are valid ways to listen to music; the interaction with the music isn’t the same, at least for me. Maybe for others, it’s different. Again, thanks for informing me; I appreciate it!

sara.

#3 Sara on December 11th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

Briefly, I don’t pretend to know an individual’s interaction with the Christ story, whether he/she is Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, agnostic, or other. I also know quite a few people who believe in the Saving Christ who wouldn’t aesthetically connect to the traditional Handel’s Messiah at all. Obviously, I didn’t connect to the “updating” nearly as much as those reviewing on Amazon who think MiG Ayesa is absolute perfection. All that to say…different strokes for different folks!

#4 Matt on December 12th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Nice review, Sara. Good read.

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