Sir, - It was with a deep sense of sadness that I digested the report (Front to Back, October 9th) on the proposed new version of Messiah. Looking back over the last millennium, we in Ireland can be justly proud that the greatest musical event of international significance must surely be the premiere of Handel's Messiah in Dublin on April 13th, 1742. Today, this oratorio is an institution and is ranked as perhaps the world's finest choral masterpiece. I am at a loss to understand, therefore, how the "event" described in your report can be tipped to be "the most memorable in Ireland's millennium celebrations". The organisers claim that the new version "will be immediately accessible to a much wider audience" must rank as a prize euphemism for "dumbing down".
In advance of the rush to dub me as a classical or choral music buff, I would like to make it clear that my taste in music is eclectic; I am as much at home with Willie Nelson at the Point Depot, traditional Irish music and craic in a good pub or a performance in the National Concert Hall. However, I feel that the butchery to be perpetrated on Handel's Messiah is a bridge too far. It will certainly do nothing to exalt every valley but will rather show that the organisers, like sheep, have gone astray and ought not lift up their heads!
To add injury to insult, Mr Seamus Brennan has announced a £700,000 commitment of our money towards the project - an event that has the potential to shame our country for its treatment of the wonderful musical legacy bequeathed us by George Frederic Handel.
Perhaps it's not too late for the organisers who have walked in darkness to see a great light and cast away this great "yoke" from us. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Forde, Shenick Avenue, Skerries, Co Dublin.