It's bigger than Ben Hur - with a cast to match, writes Roz Pulley

he mammoth production of Handel’s Messiah is coming to Cairns Civic Theatre on December 16-17 with a massed choir and orchestra of 140 performing the Christmas special, together with some of Australia’s finest opera singers.

Opera Australia and Opera Queensland bass baritone Peter Axford, Kim Kirkman of The Ten Tenors fame, Melbourne soprano Heather Michael and contralto Fortini von Gunten will headline the sacred oratorio, conducted by Stella Massey.

Created by German-born English composer George Frideric Handel in 1741-42, Messiah is a perennial Christmas favourite around the world, but has rarely been seen in Cairns on such a scale before.

"I love the work and I’ve grown up on this," Massey says.

"I was about 12 when I sang in my very first Messiah.

"My dad was a conductor and as a kid, I was taken every year to hear the Messiah at Sydney Town Hall with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Hurlstone Choral Society.

"I played it in Europe a few times when I was in the orchestra in Holland and I did it 14 years ago in Cairns and Atherton.

"It’s a huge undertaking.

"It’s one of those things that doesn’t have to be done every year in a place this size, but it needs to come out of the woodwork every so often."

Home-grown principals Peter Axford, Kim Kirkman and Heather Michael returns to Cairns for the two-night season.

Axford has studied at The Juilliard School in New York and performed with Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, the State Opera of South Australia, the West Australian Opera and appeared with the Queensland, Adelaide, Darwin, Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.

His concert performances include Verdi’s Requiem at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra.

Melbourne soprano and acclaimed flautist Heather Michael graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1993 and has toured as a soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

She has also performed for the premier and governor of Victoria and recently made her operatic debut as Alcina in the Handel opera of the same name.

Tenor soloist Kim Kirkman, 35, originally trained as a violist before switching to voice and becoming the co-founder, musical director and performer in The Ten Tenors, touring Australia, New Zealand, the US and Austria.

He has sung with Opera Queensland, the Victorian State Opera and the Queensland Pops Orchestra and appeared solo in Portugal and England.

>> Handel’s Messiah is at Cairns Civic Theatre, 7.30pm, December 16-17. Adults $25, concession $20, children $12.50. To book, phone Ticketlink on 1300 855 835.

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