Messiah in the cinema
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge take Handel into the cinema, Easter 2009
In the first ever live cinema broadcast of a choral concert, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge performed Handel’s Messiah on Palm Sunday, 5 April 2009, as part of the King’s Easter festival.
In the magnificent setting of King’s College Chapel, the Choir and Director of Music Stephen Cleobury were joined by the Academy of Ancient Music and soloists Ailish Tynan, Alice Coote, Allan Clayton & Matthew Rose in a performance that was screened live to cinemas across Europe, including Spain, Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands.
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Multimedia
Hear the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Stephen Cleobury in two extracts from the live recording on of Handel's Messiah on Palm Sunday 2009 (courtesy of EMI Classics).
'Surely, He hath bourne our griefs':
The 'Hallelujah' Chorus:
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Easter at King’s, now in its fifth year, has grown into an enormously popular series of Easter concerts and services at King’s College, Cambridge. This special project commemorated two anniversaries, the 250th anniversary of the death of Handel and the 800th anniversary of the University of Cambridge, and in its originality and scope represents a major new development for the Choir and College.
This was the first time a choral concert has been carried live via satellite. It was shown in over 200 cinemas across Europe and there are also plans to screen the performance in cinemas across North America at Christmas 2009. EMI Classics made the live concert recording available digitally on 14th April 2009, the actual anniversary of Handel’s death, and released the physical CD later in the month.
Through an exclusive agreement with Opus Arte, EMI Classics will also release the film of the concert on DVD in November 2009, in the run-up to Christmas, while additional cinema broadcasts are planned in the UK, other European countries, the United States (a 3D version of the highlights) and Australia during the same period.
The Times
4 April 2009
Richard Morrison on high-tech Handel
King's College gets technical to bring Handel's Messiah to the world
Distant worlds will collide at 7.30pm tomorrow. In the 15th-century chapel of King's College, Cambridge, under the most exquisite fan-vaulting in medieval Christendom, the renowned choir will sing Handel's Messiah under its director, Stephen Cleobury. The line-up - 16 boy trebles, 14 male “scholars” - is as sacrosanct as the Rubens behind the altar. The orchestra will play period instruments, producing the sort of sound that Handel himself would have heard in the 1740s. And to add to the antique atmosphere, the performance celebrates two ancient anniversaries: the founding of the University of Cambridge, exactly eight centuries ago; and the death of Handel, 250 years ago.
But what's this? Amid the cassocks and candles, some rude interlopers. High-definition video cameras, microphones, cables - and, outside the chapel, satellite vans sending the pictures and sounds of this timeless scene to thousands of punters in Britain and abroad. Yes, King's has entered the 21st century - not kicking and screaming, but as a pioneer. Its Messiah will be the first choral performance to be streamed live via satellite to cinemas across the UK and mainland Europe.
Of course this isn't quite as incongruous a clash of cultures as I've made out. King's has always been quite an innovative place. It was the first Cambridge college to admit females, and it has a larger proportion of state-school pupils than any other Cambridge college - not too difficult a task. And despite its royal connections (founded by Henry VI as a big brother to Eton) it has always enjoyed a radical reputation. Back in the angry 1970s the students even painted the college bar a revolutionary red, with hammer-and-sickle embellishments, as a rather sweet proclamation of their Trotskyist leanings. I expect they all joined merchant banks after that, but the bar stayed scarlet for 30 years.
And although King's grew very wealthy in the 1930s because of the stock-market dabblings of its bursar, one John Maynard Keynes, it has fallen on pretty hard times of late. Hence its willingness to exploit its world-famous choir in whatever way it can - although always in the best possible Cambridge taste, naturally. Beaming what will doubtless be a spotlessly pure performance of Messiah to Coke-slurping filmgoers in the Empire Leicester Square might strike King's fustier dons as a modernity too far. But so, probably, did the live radio broadcasts of the King's carol service when they began in 1928.
Besides, King's will be in good company. Its big-screen debut is being filmed by Opus Arte, the company launched by the Royal Opera House to handle screenings of its own operas and ballets. These have been hugely successful, as has a similar operation by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which reaches 500 cinemas in the US and UK. Indeed, a recent screening of Carmen became the highest grossing film in Britain that night.
So what's the attraction of going to the cinema to watch chaps in cassocks sing Handel or prima donnas hurl out Puccini? Well, often it's the only way to get tickets. Only a few hundred people can squeeze into King's. The great opera houses seat more, but then the obstacle is price and geography. It's hard for taxpayers in Newcastle, for instance, to see at first hand how their money is being spent at Covent Garden. But with these simulcasts going to Tyneside Cinema, they can at least check up from afar.
The real revelation for me, however, has been the quality of the product. Many people thought that the internet was the answer to classical music's “accessibility” dilemma. But the trouble with streaming concerts is that the sound deteriorates quickly as more people go online. With live cinema screenings that isn't a problem. The high-definition technology gives a much clearer view of the singers' tonsils than you'll ever get in the theatre. More to the point, the sound is excellent.
And you are part of a live audience, enjoying the event communally. I don't pretend that it's the same as “being there”. But in some ways that's an advantage. It's not easy to smuggle a giant tub of popcorn into King's chapel.
Links
• Choir of King's College, Cambridge
• Kings Easter Festival
• Opus Arte
• EMI Classics
• Arts Alliance Media