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News Release
For
Immediate Release Contact: John Warren, Director New World Baroque Orchestra
Ph: (805) 239-3022 Family Holiday Concert will Showcase Handel's Messiah. Paso Robles, CA. – Soloists and members of the New World Baroque Orchestra under the direction of John Warren and members of the combined Paso Robles High School Choirs will be performing their 7th Annual Winter Holiday Concert featuring excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah”at the newly restored Mission San Miguel Arcángel Church. The event will also include music and performances celebrating the seasonal traditions of Hanukkah and the Native Californian solstice ceremonies. Due to the popularity of this event there will be two performances: 7:00pm Friday December 2nd, and 2:00pm Sunday December 4th. History of The Messiah. Originally written for Easter, Handel's Messiah, now one of Christmas' most beloved oratorios, was composed during the darkest and most turbulent period of the great composer's life. Unlike the other great composers of his time, such as Bach and Scarlatti, Handel did not have a secure appointment as a court or church composer. Handel was in fact an entrepreneur living in London, who both composed and produced his own musical performances. A master of the Italian opera form, he was very successful until the late 1730's when the musical tastes of the London opera going public began to change. The period of 1738 to 1741 was a particularly dark and financially difficult time for Handel. Although publicly acclaimed and honored as a great composer, his music productions were not widely attended. In fact, the 1740-1741 season was such a financial failure that Handel openly talked of leaving London permanently for his native Germany. In the spring of 1741, Handel's long time collaborator and librettist, Charles Jennens, brought Handel an ambitious libretto "Messiah" based upon scripture from both the Old and New Testament. Unlike other Biblically based oratorios such as Bach's Passions and Handel and Jennens' earlier Samson, Messiah was unique because it did not center on a single Biblical story told by a narrator or a cast of named characters. Instead, in the words of Jennens, it was a dramatization of the theme "the mystery of Godliness." It is in music and song a statement of the central doctrines of Christianity: the incarnation, atonement, resurrection and the eventual universal reign of Christ. Composed and arranged in an incredible 24 days, Messiah is considered by many to be the most powerful and inspirational musical expression of Christian belief ever composed. In the winter of 1741, after 30 years performing in London, perhaps not willing to face the prospect of another failure, Handel accepted an invitation to go to Ireland to perform a series of concerts. Dublin received the composer enthusiastically and Handel's concert series there was a great success. On April 13th of that year, as a final performance of the season and fittingly as a benefit concert for the sick and incarcerated, Messiah was performed for the first time in Dublin at the Fishamble Street Music Hall. The public response was overwhelming. His confidence restored, Handel returned to London to revive and finish a successful career. Over the following years, Messiah became the standard closing performance for Handel's concert season, which typically ended just before Easter. In a fitting close to his life, the last concert the great composer ever heard performed was the season's closing performance of Messiah on April 6th, 1759. Handel died eight days later. "To perform this music in the newly restored Old Mission San Miguel Church is both a privilege and delight for the orchestra" says Mr. Warren. "For the first performance of Messiah, Handel called upon the talent of local church choirs to sing the oratorio. We are following very much in that tradition with a combined choir from several local churches and schools - we all especially look forward to this performance." Los Pastores - The Shepherd's Play. The The Sunday program will include a reenactment of an old California Missions Christmas tradition , the beautiful old PASTORELA "Los Pastores - The Shepherd's Play." . The Pastorela will be performed by the children with all of the old traditional songs that accompany the play, sung in the original Spanish as well as in English. New World Baroque Orchestra Director John Warren said, " We know from diaries of the Early Mission years that the Pastorela plays were much loved and traditionally performed at our California Missions. In the spirit of the holiday season we are teaching this play to a new generation of children so they may better understand the meaning of Christmas and also to honor the history and traditions of our Franciscan Missions of Alta-California." This always a very festive and anticipated Holiday event.--- the previous years have been standing room only concerts.
Tickets for the Sunday performance: Premium seating $30.00, General seating $20.
Tickets are available at the Mission San Miguel Parish Office and Gift Shop, or at the door. For more information and other ticket pick-up locations please call: (805) 239-3022. Since 1985, The New World Baroque Orchestra has offered lively programs of music, song and dance of the colonial missions, presidios and outposts of Spanish-California and frontier regions of New Spain. 
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