Rock n' Roll Messiah??

I LOVE music....I know a lot about it, I'm a singer, I have a music degree, I can't seem to go for very long without humming a tune, I know a lot of random music facts.....I live and breath music, in short. So I figured that someone out there would probably appreciate my musings on the music that I hear or that I make. And for my first post, I've chosen the music that is being presented on my TV right now - "Messiah Rocks!".

Okay so maybe I'm a purist, maybe I'm a music snob. I've been called both. But why did Boston Pops Director Keith Lockhart and Lyricist and Director Dani Davis feel the need to go HERE? Not only has the overall feeling of this epic Oratorio been lost, but the distractions are HUGE on this stage. Between the three, I believe three, electric guitars and the gold lame boots on the one female singer (who I don't think is a Soprano by any means) I don't know where to look. And that's part of the issue, too. You shouldn't feel this compelled to watch the Messiah being performed. I shouldn't care if the singers are sitting on the floor or leaning up against the drum kit (yup folks....I said drum kit); it's about the music and the lyrics and the quality of both that are presented by the musicians. The singers - LaChanze (Tony-Award winner from "The Color Puple"), J. Robert Spencer from "Jersey Boys" and MiG Ayesa who appeared in "Rock Star: INXS" on TV a few years back - are decent singers and are doing a good job with the materials they've been given. But to have Messiah turned into a rock piece is just.....painful, to say the least. I have sung Messiah many times and I have yet to recognize a piece aside from the Hallelujah Chorus and For Unto Us a Child is Born (which has very recognizable lyrics, too so it was easy to pick out). There is something to be said for familiarity, especially with a beloved piece such as Messiah, and that familiarity has been trampled on and the piece is a mashed up heavy-metalesque concert that I could head-bang to.

I just realized that the Director is wearing leather pants. They are ALMOST as tight as the vocal chords on the one singer who can't seem to stop screaming (I honestly have no clue which guy it is but he is now leading the audience in singing out "The Lord" in yet another piece that I can't recognize).

For those of us that have performed Messiah, or parts of it, know that it's a challenging piece. It isn't all about getting the breaths in the right place, or hitting the right notes, or even saying the text correctly and in a manner to convey the emotion behind it. It's about getting all three right and making it look easy, which it isn't because in many areas it is a very technically challenging piece. The runs are long and hard to navigate and require a singer to have great breath control; it also requires a singer to convey a range of emotion and keep their energy alive for over 90-minutes of music. And then this happens. This amazing feast of music for the performer and the listener, is turned into a rock n' roll cluster f. I just heard someone say that they fully believe that the fans of Messiah will enjoy searching for the "Handel" in the new interpretation. REALLY?? I don't know about any one else but I'm not in the mood to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and do detective work when I listen to Messiah. It's a holiday season favorite and I like my holiday season favorites in their original, beloved, allbeit predictable, form.

Finally they get to "Hallejuah Chorus" and they actually didn't deviate from the original too much. I could actually sing along....with the belting singers, the very loud electric guitar, pounding bass drum (almost Metallica-like, I must say), oh and did I mention the light show? Of COURSE there's a light show. A rock show is nothing without it's light show. (I just saw fist pumping to "King of Kings" and head banging to "Forever and ever". I think I'm going to start pumping my head into the nearest wall.)

It seems like these days, there are so many recreations of great pieces of work and I don't understand why the original isn't good enough for our culture any longer. From movies to music, nothing seems to be impervious to the hands of the "modernists" that have to take what's old and make it new again. I hope that some "modernist" doesn't get their hands on me....hell, I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore at 35 but I like the way I look and sound. If handed over, I'd probably end up looking like some Japanese Anime girl with HUGE boobs and even bigger eyes, and my hair wouldn't be nearly as cool as it is in real life. : )