Rehearsals are underway for the upcoming Delaware Community Chorus winter performance of Handel’s “Messiah.”
Artistic Director Joshua Brodbeck said the 62-member chorus and an orchestra will perform the Christmas portion of “Messiah” on Dec. 20 and 21, but he added the venue will be different than previous years.
“We couldn’t find a place in Delaware to host us so we’re going to be in All Shepherds Lutheran Church in Lewis Center,” Brodbeck said. “It seats about 200 people, so we have to do it twice. Normally, we have 600, so not everybody is going to be able to come.”
Brodbeck said the group had been looking for a performance space since last spring.
“We’ve tried to get into Gray Chapel (at Ohio Wesleyan University) but so far that has not been fruitful,” Brodbeck said. “That’d be the ideal place, but it just hasn’t (worked out).”
Brodbeck said the group also tried Willis Auditorium, but they were not able to look at the calendar to pick a date at Willis until after rehearsals for the show had already begun. He said Willis “would be a place that would probably work as well.”
As for “Messiah,” Brodbeck said the show will be a different version of the iconic piece of music, and it will be performed in a traditional Baroque style.
“A lot of times you hear it done in ‘20th century’ style (where it’s) sung loud because it’s happy, but we’re doing it in Baroque style, the style it was written in, so it might sound different,” Brodbeck said. “I’ve been teaching the choir to think of it very differently. Some of the people have sung it for years a certain way, and now, I’m changing it and that’s what they’re getting used to. They are picking it up really well.”
Comparing the styles, Brodbeck said that in the Baroque style everything is “short and lighter and bouncy.”
“It doesn’t have a heavy feel to it,” he said. “Some people who have sung it another way have said they really enjoy the difference and how it tends to match the words a little better. … We’re just doing the Christmas part (of ‘Messiah’) because otherwise, we’d be there for like three hours.”
More information about the chorus can be found at delawarechorus.com. The group is also currently running a popcorn fundraiser and more information can be found at https://popup.doublegood.com/s/p4j34l8z.
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
