15/09/07 - Carnival Messiah

The Carnival Messiah at Harewood House was a spectacular blend of Caribbean carnival, music, dance and drama, based on Handel’s Messiah.  A professional cast spearheaded the production, ably supported by a large community chorus chosen from an open casting in Leeds.  Altogether, more than a hundred people took to the stage and the many costume changes were managed with great dexterity.  Some parts of Handel’s Messiah were superbly performed straight and I particularly liked the rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus by a steel band. 

Harewood House was built on profits from the Lascelles sugar plantations in the West Indies and the descendants of those very slaves, many of them now resident in Leeds, will not fail to appreciate the sgnificance of the venue.  The bi-centenary of the transatlantic slave trade was very much to the fore in the advertising and the displays in the huge marquee where the production was staged.