Handel’s ‘Messiah’ at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Dec. 10

Symphony in C will be joined by the Greater South Jersey Chorus in a performing Handel’s “Messiah (HWV 56)” at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts this Saturday.

Performance: Saturday, Dec. 10, 8 p.m. – 3rd and Pearl Sts., Camden, N.J. Tickets range from $24 to $51.

Though Leonard Cohen’s hit song has been on heavy rotation since his recent death, the holiday season brings another “Hallelujah” to mind.

Handel’s “Messiah (HWV 56)”, particularly its “Hallelujah” chorus, is as much a Christmas tradition as decorated evergreen trees and smooches under the mistletoe.

It was 275 years ago that George Frideric Handel composed the English-language oratorio. Plagued by debt, Handel wrote the 260-page “Messiah” in just 24 days as a commission piece for a benefit performance to free poor men in debtors’ prison.

It premiered in Dublin the following spring (1742) and has since become one of the best-known and most performed choral works in Western music.

Saturday’s performance will be conducted by Symphony in C’s Music Director, Stilian Kirov.

Related story: Camden’s Symphony in C moves HQ to Collingswood