Aimee Mann & the Messiah

Well, because of the snow and ice on December the fourth, I couldn't make it to the Aimee Mann show in Durham. I'm very disappointed, because despite the weather, it went on anyway. Oh well. You can't make it to them all, Larry. Durham's over a half-hour away with good weather and traffic. Wednesday night, with everyone madly dashing home in the freezing rain, well... I guess you can't blame me!

However, after most of the ice melted, and things cleared away a little, I did make it out to Durham Friday night to see Handel's Messiah performed at Duke Chapel. The Chapel, as it is known, is not a chapel at all, but a Gothic cathedral, flying buttresses and all. It's beautiful, and the Chapel Choir performed wonderfully! It has been a long while since I've been out to hear classical music.

The performance really got me in the Christmas spirit, and it was wonderful to get out of the house. All this weather was really getting to us, making for bad cabin fever. The joke was, of course, that more people than usual showed up for the annual Messiah performance because it was the only place in Durham that night that had power and was heated! That joke is not really funny, because it was true. However, to me, being true makes it all the funnier.

I learned a few interesting things about the Messiah that I had never known before. I didn't realize that it is actually broken up into three parts, and the famous "Hallelujah Chorus", which everyone knows by heart, is not at the very end, but at the end of the second part. Also, I thought the tradition was that you stood up at the end of the Hallelujah Chorus in silence to applaud. The story I heard was that the first time the Messiah was performed, everyone was so flabbergasted by it and the Hallejuh Chorus, that they just stood in silent awe. However, at this performance, everyone stood through the whole Chorus, and clapped heartily after it was done. Then, almost everyone left! How rude!