“Messiah (HWV 56) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel based on a libretto by Charles Jennens. Composed in the summer of 1741 and premiered in Dublin on the 13 April 1742, Messiah is Handel’s most famous creation and is among the most popular works in Western choral literature. It includes the very well-known ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. … It was premiered during the following season, in the spring of 1742, as part of a series of charity concerts in Neal’s Music Hall on Fishamble Street near Dublin’s Temple Bar district. … There is a story told (perhaps apocryphally) that Handel’s assistant walked in to Handel’s room after shouting to him for several minutes with no response. The assistant reportedly found Handel in tears, and when asked what was wrong, Handel held up the score to this movement and said, ‘I thought I saw the face of God’.”
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