Premiere of Handel's Messiah
Next: April 13, 2027
The first Hallelujah, sung for charity.
The story
Where it comes from
On 13 April 1742 George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah was performed for the first time, at the New Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, and this Story marks the anniversary. The words, taken from the Bible, were compiled by his friend Charles Jennens, and Handel had written the music in little more than three weeks in the late summer of 1741. The premiere was a charity concert for prisoners in the city's gaols and for two hospitals, and the hall, built for about 600, held some 700 people.
How it's celebrated
Every 13 April since 1992 a choir has gathered on the spot in Fishamble Street where Messiah was first sung, to perform selections from it. The work has been performed thousands of times since that first concert. A good way to mark the day is to listen to the 'Hallelujah' chorus, or to give a little to a charity, as that first audience did.
Did you know
- To fit everyone in, ladies were asked to come without the hoops in their dresses and gentlemen without their swords.
- Tickets cost half a guinea, and the premiere raised about £400 for the three charities.
- Handel later gave yearly Messiah concerts for London's Foundling Hospital, a home for abandoned children, and left it a copy of the score and all the parts in his will.
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