Technical Details: Interactive menu Sound: DTS/ DD 5.1/ Digital Stereo Region Code: worldwide Picture Format: 4:3  Special: 5.1 Surround Check Tool   Running Time: ca. 90 min.

Order No: 55018 G. F. Haendel Messiah HV 56 (Abridged Version)   Orchestra: Cantillation and Orchestra of the Antipodes Conductor: Antony Walker Soloists: Sara Macliver, Alexandra Sherman, Christopher Field, Paul McMahon, Teddy Tahu Rhodes Haendel’s  Messiah has been described as "the most influential and widely performed choral work of all time". Yet despite its popularity there had never been a complete recording of the work made by Australian musicians before the one documented on the DVD in hand. Recorded in 2002 and using period instruments and singers who specialise in music of the Baroque era, this ambitious project attracted Australia's finest soloists and musicians. Their dynamic performance of the original 1742 version of Messiah was captured in the historic splendour of St. Patrick's Chapel, Manly, Australia. Unlike the many Händel oratorios that are based on the lives of Old Testament figures - Saul, Solomon, Samson, Jephtha, Judas Maccabeus, etc, - Messiah does not have a plot featuring named characters in a series of incidents. The only portion of narrative is the comparatively brief nativity scene, from the Pifa (Pastoral Symphony) to the chorus "Glory to God in the highest". The libretto is a compilation of verses from the Bible. The verses are drawn from various prophets of the Old Testament, from Isaiah, the Psalms, the Evangelists, and Paul. Upon this assorted material the music imposes a magnificent unity. The massive choruses are pillars of architectural structures while the tuneful recitatives and broadly flowing arias serve as areas of lesser tension.