lift up thy voice with strength
Tonight's performance of Messiah went well. Tomorrow's (St Peter's Church, Oundle, 7pm; be there or be somewhere else) should be good too, provided we can find a tenor soloist -- the originally-billed one is ill and tonight's substitute can't do it tomorrow.
Handel composed more than one version of some of the arias, and some of the ones we're doing are quite different from the ones usually sung. This is good, because it gives one a renewed appreciation of the usual versions. (Well ... the unorthodox versions aren't that bad, really, but the orthodox ones are better.)