Jennifer Marie J. Yang, MD

The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Massachusetts presented an annual Handel’s Messiah concert for the holidays last December 20, 2020; they have done so since 1854. Like so many performances in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, it pivoted (and overall quite successfully) to an online format this year.

From a Performing Arts Medicine standpoint, they did the following things right to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission:

• A small group of singers (not a choir of tens or hundreds) with adequate distance between them, both between front and back rows and between singers in the same row.
• Singers with well-fitted masks – singers’ masks at that! They had to compensate for those masks muffling their sound, using better enunciation, breathing, pacing. They also had microphones, which of course helped.
• A small ensemble of instrumental musicians adequately spaced and with masks as well.

Things I don’t know about making the video, but I hope the production team did to keep performers safe:

• Make sure performers did not have COVID-19 symptoms, and/or performers tested negative for COVID-19 prior to recording the performance (within appropriate timeframes)
• Took adequate breaks between recording sessions – the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) recommendations for singers include doing 30 minute sessions, then taking a break for an air exchange.
• Recorded the wind instruments separately from everyone else (looks like they did this, since the brass instrumentalists were filmed in their own frames and appear to be playing solo, then virtually synchronizing their bits later with the rest of the group)

And finally, things that did not comply with PAMA recommendations but may be forgivable:

• Instrumentalists in a semicircle instead of straight rows… although they were spaced apart adequately, wore masks and were not wind instrument players. I think they did all they could to minimize the risk, except for the seating arrangement.
• Brass instrumentalists playing without cloth covers over the instrument’s bell, but again if their parts were filmed separately from everyone then it would be OK not to have those cloth covers.

And a brief note about the music (just my amateur musician’s opinion): I would have preferred a woman singing the air “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion” written for alto + chorus. The male countertenor was fantastic, so he shouldn’t take it personally. But that may just be me showing my bias because I sing alto in chorus and we love our own 🙂

Overall, I enjoyed the entire program and congratulate the Handel & Haydn Society and Boston’s public radio station WGBH for the commendable efforts to bring Handel’s Messiah to the online audience since live music is not feasible yet. The “gold standard” is still a full orchestra and chorus, but “for Our Time” they did a great job.