Sydney Reviews

Sydney in the pre-Christmas season is magical. Festive decorations adorn the old heritage buildings, squares and streets. The harbour’s blue waters and the sun glow on the billowing sails of the Sydney Opera House only intensify the city’s bright, shimmering pull. The city pulses with vitality, with a quickened pace and a hunger to live fully, untrammelled by the weight of old traditions. 

It is in this bold and innovative spirit that I experienced George Frideric Handel’s Messiah in its original Dublin version from 1742 – a more intimate and dramatic version, performed by a compact Orchestra of the Antipodes, with Erin Helyard conducting from the harpsichord alongside twelve baroque-trained singers.

Vivacious and virtuosic, Pinchgut Opera’s intimate rendition is rooted deeply in research and the practice of historical performance, yet unmistakably Sydney – unmistakably Australian – in its swift, vibrant, and exhilarating delivery.

Visual contemplation
Messiah traces a spiritual arc from prophecy to fulfilment, portraying the birth, suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ as the embodiment of divine promise. Its text ultimately affirms humanity’s hope for redemption, renewal, and the triumph of light over darkness. The beloved oratorio holds a unique place as both a sacred meditation and an annual cultural ritual in the pre-Christmas season.

As the audience enters the hall, their eyes rest on a muted grey backdrop anchored by a single, commanding black dot. The silent, pregnant-with-meaning symbol lends a minimalist meditative feel to the space. This simple visual focus creates a shared moment of stillness and invites reflection even before a single note is played.

Once the orchestra begins and the voices rise, an entire creation seems to emerge from this black dot which becomes a circle. Spotlights pierce through its darkness to illuminate key solos.

This minimalist approach to staging, together with light interplay and atmospherics, designed by Damien Cooper, shapes a more engaging visual landscape than expected for an oratorio performance.

Lighting that shifts with the musical texture and injects visual movement, is effective in countering the traditionally static conventions of the concert style performance of the oratorio.

Messiah (original Dublin version, 1742) reimagined
With reduced scoring to mostly strings, trumpets, drums and bass only, a professional choir of twelve singers, tailored solos, transparent textures, and a flexible, agile sound, the 1742 Dublin version of Messiah allows the instrumentalists and singers to highlight the dramatic import of the text and deliver intricate textures with clarity and brilliance.

A standout collective performance by the small chorus (three each of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) yields a surprisingly resonant and thrilling collective tone from such a small ensemble. In Helyard’s brisk conception, the choruses are swiftly reimagined. At unusually fast tempos, the singers dispatch rapid, intricate passages with precision that borders on the impossible, particularly in the choruses “For unto us a child is born” and “And he shall purify”.

The solos are distributed among the small team of singers, creating a uniquely balanced and character-driven vocal landscape that differs notably from later standardised versions. Much of the work’s appeal is the opportunity to hear not just four solo voices but eleven. Each gifted with a beautiful instrument and singing exceptionally, the eleven soloists delivered their recitatives and airs (arias) with musical depth and freshly imagined ornamentation.

Experienced singers were given the task to carry the most pregnant of moments in the sacred narrative. Now based in Germany, Australian tenor Jacob Lawrence set a high bar at the beginning with a nuanced reading of the accompagnato “Comfort ye” and a compelling “Ev’ry valley shall be exalted.” Both were shaped by elegantly judged ornamentation.

British bass Edward Grint offered a noble, insightful reading of “But who may abide” and the preceding recitative “Thus saith the Lord”. He brought a festive proclamation to the famous air “The trumpet shall sound” with trumpet obbligato played by Leanne Sullivan.

Adjustments tailored to the original singers soprano Susannah Cibber and Christina Avolio give the Dublin version a warmer, more reflective tone toward the close of each of the oratorio’s three parts. This introspective quality contrasts with the vigour Handel reserved for the concluding choruses, shaping a dramatic progression from contemplation to exaltation.

With a stellar international career, Australian soprano Miriam Allan has returned to Pinchgut Opera to lend her angelic voice to key arias in the first and third parts of this Messiah. As she rose to sing the sequence of recitatives depicting the exchange between the shepherds and the angel announcing the birth of Jesus in the first part, beams of light turned her blond hair to gold and illuminated her rapturous countenance.

With an angelic tone and presence, she sang “Rejoice greatly”. The close of the slow section of this air was among the performance’s high points: soft, heartfelt legato and sincere phrasing dissolved into a suspended silence. Time momentarily stopped before she crowned the aria with masterful ornamentation. This effect, however, was momentarily undermined by attempts to imitate the word “shout,” an interpretive choice that sat at odds with the sacred character of the narrative.

The most compelling performance came from French soprano Myriam Arbouz. In the accompagnato recitative “Thy rebuke hath broken His heart” and the following air “Behold and see” (both originally written for tenor), she not only sang with mastery but fully embodied the account of Christ’s suffering. Broken-heartedness, vulnerability, abandonment, and anguish coloured her voice and face with rich palette of dramatic inflections. In “Behold and see,” like a priestess she addressed the audience directly, encouraging and urging them to look upon Christ’s sorrow.

The production and reception of emotion are central to the historical performance of Baroque works. When there is a lack of congruence between the text – carried by words and music – and the singer’s bodily movements, the intended weight of the message is weakened: the voice conveys one meaning while the body remains visually neutral. What Arbouz demonstrated so effectively in her performance of this dramatic oratorio passage is the natural continuum between committed vocal delivery and embodied expression, whilst still adhering to the concert style of the performance. In her affecting singing, the face was a vital visual carrier of emotion.

Another distinguishing feature of the Dublin version from 1742 is that it contains several intimate duets that reveal Handel’s more personal, chamber-like writing. Mezzo-sopranos Ashlyn Tymms and Hanna Fraser offered a finely blended “How beautiful are the feet,” while Pinchgut scholar mezzo Olivia Payne and tenor Sebastian Maclaine delivered a convincing “O Death, where is thy sting?” The close interplay of voices in these duets created an intriguing contrast and emphasised some of the oratorio’s most reflective moments.

This Messiah marks a moment of musical history unfolding in real time, aligned with the growing tradition of historically informed performance in Australia. It draws on the vision of the work by conductor Antony Walker, captured in the 2002 ABC Classics recording in which Erin Helyard played harpsichord, as he notes in the program. More than two decades later, Helyard leads with artistic maturity and furthers that vision by imprinting the interpretation of the Messiah Dublin version from 1742 with his own deep contemplation and unmistakable energy. In turn, he extends this legacy by engaging new generations of musicians and audiences.

A hall stirred to its feet
For many, Messiah evokes a nostalgic sense of togetherness and a time of repose within the liminal space of the year’s end. Encountering the work anew often creates a sense of spaciousness as Handel’s music prompts memories and even spontaneous mental singalongs with its well-known melodies, texts, and rhythms.

Depending on the version one knows best, one might expect a familiar rendering; however, this Sydney–Dublin interpretation of the work challenges those expectations through its vocal and orchestral lightness, virtuosity, and heightened dramatic clarity and warmth. This energetic abandon is designed not only to render the original musical score anew but also to spur curiosity, surprise, and sustained attention. Such a conception demands that both orchestra and singers begin with a great surge of performance energy and sustain it throughout.

The Pinchgut Sydney–Dublin Messiah was met by the audience with warmth and sense of communal connection through the music. Filling roughly two thirds of the City Recital Hall, the audience listened with attentiveness, withholding applause until the end of each part. Many also honoured the tradition of standing during the “Hallelujah” chorus at the close of the second part.

Uplifted by the final chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,” the audience erupted into enthusiastic applause and cheers in recognition of this rare rendition of a much-loved work.

Musical history unfolding
Nearly three centuries after its Dublin premiere, Handel’s Messiah continues to speak to us – not just as a seasonal ritual, but as a work of renewal, hope, and profound humanity. Pinchgut’s 1742 Dublin version offers a rare experience: not a large choral spectacle, but an intimate reflection of dedicated baroque specialists.  

Rooted in deep research yet infused with the confident, progressive spirit of Australian musicianship, this Sydney-born interpretation feels both true to its origins and unmistakably Australian in its vitality and boldness. It’s the kind of Messiah we almost never encounter, one that invites us to witness something genuinely inventive.