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Show Messiah' Chorus, Soloists Ready Dec. 16 Program With 10 days remaining before their performance, soloists and chorus members for "The Messiah" Mes-siah" Wednesday began polishing polish-ing up their parts for the annual presentation of Handel's greatest oratorio in Cedar City. "The Messiah" Mes-siah" will be performed Sunday, Dec. If), at 8:15 p. m. in the Third ward chapel under the direction of Blaine Johnson. The chorus, composed of the combined choruses from the BAC, the Master Singers and the Can-zona Can-zona chorus, will have 120 voices. An orchestra of 40 pieces, under the direction of Prof. R. L. Halversen, Hal-versen, will take part in the pre-sentation. pre-sentation. Written in 1741 in only 21 days, "The Messiah" was first performed per-formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1712. The composer had for some years stagnated, but when he grasped a biblical theme his creative cre-ative energies seemed to regain their earlier vigor. Handel was so consumed by his enthusiasm in writing "The Messiah" that he reported having seen a vision which enabled him to write the "Hallelujah" chorus without interruption. in-terruption. It is said that the tradition of standing during the "Hallelujah" chorus began when during a special performance the King of England and his company, deeply deep-ly moved by the chorus, stood in reverence. s Soloists who will appear in the presentation include Luana Riddle, Rid-dle, Norma Edwards, Christine Ilouchen and Loa Johnson, sopranos; so-pranos; Mary Sargent, alto; Her-schell Her-schell Neeley ancl Peed Roberts, tenors, and Joseph Hunter, baritone. |