Lagos City Chorale in the throes of Handel’s Messiah

The standing ovation that lasted over five minutes aptly captured the ecstatic mood of a large audience that witnessed the exquisite performance of the evergreen and world’s best loved chorale masterpiece, The Messiah, by G.F. Handel.

The performance was by the Lagos City Chorale (international award winning choir) at the Shell Hall of MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos recently. Accompanied by a 25-man orchestra, the concert commenced at 5:30pm as the maestro, Sir Emeka Nwokedi, emerged on the stage with his baton to cue in the orchestra, which did the overture.

Subsequently, there were series of recitatives, arias and choruses that were beautifully rendered by various soloists and the choir. Fred Duke, a fine lyricist tenor was outstanding in his tenor arias and recitatives, and so were other soloists, which include Taiwo Olayemi (Soprano), Daniel Etim (Bass), Chioma and Ifeoma Mbachu (Soprano and Alto), David Ihechukwu (Counter-tenor), Chidubem Nwokedi (Baritone) and Chinonso Njoku (Soprano).

The orchestra, led by Kehinde David, a veteran violinist and teacher, gave a deserving support to the entire performance. The accompaniment was further strengthened by the Allen Digital Organ manned by Tobi Balogun and keyboard skillfully played by Alaba Akinselure.

The high point in the concert was when the special guest of honour, Donald Duke (former Governor of Cross River State) was called upon to conduct the popular Alleluia Chorus performed by an augmented choir drawn from the audience.

The rendition by over 150-man choir was thunderous and exciting. The ex-governor exhibited good musicianship and good knowledge of the song to the final rousing cadence to the delight of the audience, which gave a loud ovation.

In his congratulatory message to the conductor after the concert, the former governor remarked thus: “It was amazing, it was brilliant and congratulations from all of us.”

Other special guests, which include, Mr. Paschal Dozie (Chairman of MTN) and Chief (Mrs.) Osomo (Former Minister for Housing and Urban Development), also shared the same opinion with Duke regarding the performance.

Another commentator said, “It was awesome, I felt like I was in heaven when Worthy is the Lamb/Amen was being rendered.” The Principal Trombonist, Benson Utomi in his congratulatory message wrote, “this is one of the best performance of Handel’s Messiah so far in this divide of the world.”

Lagos City Chorale, founded in 1988 by the late Senator Lere Adesina and the maestro, Nwokedi, has blazed the trail of excellence in choral music since its establishment.

The group has given many high standard concerts across Nigeria. It has also performed in various world’s choral music festivals and competitions in China, USA, Austria, Latvia, Germany and Russia and has won several laurels for Nigeria