Daltrey does Dublin

[Wthyo@aol.com]

Here is a story on the up coming Daltrey show in Ireland.
                    
                            Ty

Handel's Messiah gets modern makeover in Ireland

  
DUBLIN, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Traditionalists may wince but Handel will go a 
little bit funky and a little bit rock'n'roll in Ireland this weekend when 
Roger Daltrey, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan give the composer's epic Messiah 
oratorio a makeover. 

``It's a modernisation of Handel's Messiah that Handel first performed in 
Fishamble Street in Dublin in 1742,'' a spokesman for the show's promoter 
told Reuters on Friday. 

``We thought it was very appropriate, at the turn of the millennium, to have 
a popularised version in Dublin.'' 

Former Who frontman Daltrey, soul diva Knight and funk songstress Khan will 
join a full orchestra, rhythm section and two choirs -- one gospel, the other 
traditional -- at the 5,500-seat Royal Dublin Society on Saturday and Sunday. 

An electric guitar, bass, keyboards and drum kit are being thrown in for good 
measure to add even more musical oomph to the script by Irish playwright 
Frank McGuinness. 

The spokesman dismissed criticism that the modern adaptation was an affront 
to Handel, saying the composer was a visionary with big production values who 
courted controversy by setting biblical words to music. 

``A lot of people have said he'd be turning over in his grave but Handel 
first performed in Dublin at a time when Dublin was just kind of 
off-Broadway, off-London,'' he said. 

``He came here with not very much money and he had a very small orchestra and 
a very small choir. In his later writings, he said if he had cannon, he would 
use it.'' 

10:16 12-03-99