Johannes Debus rekindles boyhood love of Handel’s Messiah

Three decades later, Debus is music director of the Canadian Opera Company, far removed from the cathedral choir in Speyer, Germany, where he had his first musical immersion. But he is having a happy reunion with Messiah next week.

“It has revived very fond memories,” he says.

Debus is conducting this year’s Messiah performances by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. And he is excited about reconnecting with a score that set his heart on fire so many years ago.

There are many things Debus likes about George Frideric Handel’s greatest oratorio. “It starts with the idea that Handel was able to describe musically emotional states with so little, with one musical gesture,” he explains.

Debus says Handel was an incredible tunesmith. “Mozart and Haydn might have even agreed that Handel was a role model for them on how to write melodies,” he adds. The conductor also likes the theatricality of the two-plus hours work for orchestra, chorus and soloists that tells the core story of Christian faith.

“It’s not just a sacred oratorio,” Debus says. “There is an enormous amount of drama in it, a lot of chiaroscuro, the light and the dark. It is, in a way, an opera on a religious theme. Of course it has a kind of exposition, a climax of the drama and a cathartic element at the end.”

There is so much to recommend Messiah that it’s no surprise that performances are a Christmastime tradition in most of the English-speaking world. This city has seen regular presentations of Handel’s oratorio since the Sacred Harmonic Choir of Toronto sang it in full in 1857.

This year, the TSO musicians are joined by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and an excellent cast of operatic singers with strong Toronto connections: soprano Claire de Sévigné, mezzo Allyson McHardy, tenor Andrew Haji and baritone Tyler Duncan.

Debus is looking for a lively sound, inspired by period-instrument practice that reflects Messiah’s origins in 1741. “It needs to speak, to have a certain rhetorical quality and to convey the rhythmical vitality of that music,” he says.

The recording of Messiah his mom bought for him was led by conductor John Eliot Gardiner, one of the most successful advocates of period-instrument practice. Coincidentally, that excellent 1982 album also featured Canadian mezzo Catherine Robbin, who now teaches voice at York University.

The TSO is offering six Messiah performances starting Monday, Dec. 17, running to Sunday, Dec. 23.

There are many other concerts featuring Messiah in and around Toronto at this time of year. These include Tafelmusik’s predictably excellent performances at Koerner Hall under conductor Ivars Taurins. Tafelmusik offers four performances, starting Dec. 18.

Because Massey Hall is closed for renovations, Tafelmusik’s annual Sing-Along Messiah takes place at Roy Thomson Hall on Dec. 22 this year. The larger hall will allow an even bigger audience to join in the musical drama.

Visit tso.ca for details on the TSO’s Messiah. See tafelmusik.org for information on Tafelmusik’s versions.

Correction - December 12, 2018: This article was edited from previous version that mistakenly said renowned English conductor John Eliot Gardiner is no longer alive. In fact, he lives in England.