The Messiah by Händel/Mozart

With Messiah we have a perfect example avant la lettre of stories of faith, healing and resurrection. This capolavoro by the “caro Sassone”, a contemporary of Bach and Vivaldi, has already earned him posterity. As Stefan Zweig explains, Händel was commissioned to write an oratorio on the resurrection to be delivered in just 24 days. A few months later, on 13 April 1742, Messiah would premier in Dublin. Händel died 17 years later, but not before he had heard his favourite score for the last time. 

The stage version, presented here by cult stage director Robert Wilson, arose from Salzburg’s Mozartwoche where it was performed in January 2020 and it is based on the German version of 1789, arranged by another genius: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Born three years before the maestro’s death, the young Mozart created this arrangement at the request of an important Freemason patron: Gottfried van Swieten who, enamoured of Händel’s oratorios, would also later work on the librettos of Joseph Haydn’s two oratorios from texts by John Milton: The Creation and The Seasons.