This year, for the first time, the popular jazz-gospel-rock-funk version of G.F. Handel’s traditional Messiah oratorio welcomes the start of the holiday season, on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 4, at 3 p.m.
Created in 1992 as a collaboration between conductor Marin Alsop with orchestrators and arrangers Bob Christianson and Gary Anderson, Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah had its Chicago premiere at the Auditorium Theatre in 2006. The production has returned every year since, formerly during the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year, Too Hot to Handel lands right in the middle of the traditional Messiah season in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
A powerhouse Chicago chorus, along with members of Detroit’s Rackham Symphony Choir, is joined by a chamber orchestra, an exuberant jazz combo, and three soloists: Alfreda Burke, Rodrick Dixon and Karen-Marie Richardson.
Tickets start at $28 and are now available at http://AuditoriumTheatre.org, 312-341-2300, or at the box office.