Handel’s Messiah

The Astana Opera Orchestra, the Dubai Festival Chorus, and conductor Rob Johnston perform the classic mainstay of the festive season – one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral pieces in Western music. Famously Handel composed Messiah in just 24 days without much sleep or food; and while writing the great ‘Hallelujah’ chorus Handel’s servant discovered him with tears in his eyes and he exclaimed, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels”. Powerful stuff.

The Orchestra of the Asrtana State Opera and Ballet has more than 120 musicians, many of them required for this full-bodied piece. Rob Johnston, a noted tenor as well as conductor, has led the Dubai Festival Chorus since 2019; the Chorus is a talented group of singers drawn from across the UAE, originally brought together for the Dubai debut of the BBC Proms and now numbering over 200 members of 25 different nationalities.