A musical Easter treat

Easter Sunday is not complete without a live performance of Handel’s Messiah at The Playhouse Company’s opera theatre.

The grandly staged production features soloists Khumbuzile Dhlamini (soprano), Violina Anguelov (mezzo), Thabiso Masemene (tenor) and Aubrey Lodewyk (baritone), with the 40-strong Playhouse Chorale and members of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, performing under the baton of English conductor Tim Murray.

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Director Ralph Lawson said this great work has become the world’s most frequently performed choral masterpiece since it was performed in Dublin in April 1742.

“It is wonderful to have the opportunity to work on a semi-staged version of Messiah, a work of genius that, on every hearing of it (even at rehearsal), bestows a glow of marvelous well-being,” said Lawson.

“What appeals to me most about the work and which I am trying to bring out in the staging of it, is Handel’s humanity, which really infuses the work and makes a version like this possible.

“He was, we are told, profoundly generous and donated regularly to retired musicians, to orphans and to the ill. He gave some of the proceeds from the debut performance to a debtors’ prison and a hospital in Dublin.

“His annual benefit concerts always included Messiah and proceeds went to his favourite charity, a home for abandoned children called the Foundling Hospital in London.

“He left the bulk of his considerable estate to charity and to his servants.”

Book your tickets at Computicket for the Easter Sunday matinee performance on April 1 at 3pm. Tickets from R110 and R130.

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