Performing Messiah in the time of pandemic - a message from the Artistic Director.

It’s been our shared experience that everything needs some adaptation to exist in time of Covid. Concerts
are no different; at the Dallas Bach Society, we think that going ahead with live performance by making
the needed adaptations is the best path. So far this season we’ve done what is necessary, and our public
seems pleased with the results. We are very grateful to the Aldredge House and to Zion Lutheran Church
for agreeing that live music is a necessity, and allowing our events to take place in their homes.
Messiah is clearly our most complicated effort this season. Because the danger of infection from singing
is apparently more than with instrumental music, we have with great sadness (since vocal music is the
very heart of the Baroque) arranged most of our concerts for 2020-21 without singers. All the precautions
we’ve taken thus far, most importantly testing each of the artists before allowing them to perform, are of
course continued, which has led to many differences from previous Messiahs.
To begin with, choral rehearsals have not been weekly as usual, but rather in a block just before the
performance, as it would be too much trouble to test and retest everyone. Since we are severely restricted
in space due to social distancing, the obvious solution was to get a few of our most talented and
experienced singers, and to share the solos among them, as having a dedicated solo quartet sitting out
most of the show was literally a waste of space! Luckily our group consists in large measure of solo
singers willing to take part in exceptional choral works, so it was relatively easy to achieve this.
The question of cuts to the score of Messiah also arose for the first time, due to the advisability of limiting
indoor exposure, for although we will be infecting neither you nor one another, the possibility of
asymptomatic audience members can’t be discounted. For our first half, we follow the common practice
of performing the Christmas section (Part the First) plus the Hallelujah Chorus, which provides a concert
of just a little under an hour, which is perfect for people who would like to keep their exposure to others
at about that length. At this point in our evening, we will air out the sanctuary while the audience waits
outside. Of course the rest of Messiah runs considerably longer than an hour, but we discovered
something quite interesting that will permit our public to enjoy most of Messiah in its original context.
Eliminating two very long arias of about ten minutes duration each, plus not pausing between Part the
Second and Part the Third, brings the run time for the second half down to about an hour! We don’t
normally make cuts in Messiah because of the genius of Handel’s sweeping dramatic conception, and
how his pieces work together in context to provide a glorious and exceptional experience over time. Thus
saving the vast majority of this is quite gratifying. In the hope that most people won’t mind hearing
Hallelujah twice, we will play it again in context, which we believe you will find especially meaningful.
Our orchestra is also greatly reduced, and we are very fortunate indeed that Zion Lutheran has such lovely
acoustics that this succeeds very nicely. Messiah was conceived for Dublin originally without oboes, and
when Handel added them, it was only to accompany the choral sopranos and the respective violin
sections. Going with the entire Dublin version was an attractive possibility, but in the end it seemed best
to leave some of the later additions to the work which are clearly superior to the first version, even when
playing without oboes. The lack of a solo high trumpet is much regretted, but (as with oboes) players
were not willing to commit, perhaps because they are literally out of practice! Our fabulous string band
can play masked and we are so fortunate to have them!!
There will be no announcements from the podium to save precious time together; we only ask that
you consider the thousand ticket buyers not here this evening when you plan your year-end giving!