It is Wednesday and I am not needed at Schuster Center until the evening for which I will, for the first time, hear Handel’s THE MESSIAH in full. I’ve heard excerpts or favored chunks from the 1741 oratorio but never the score in its entirety.

Oratorio: an oratorio is a large-scale musical work for orchestra and voices, typically a narrative on a religious theme, performed without the use of costumes, scenery, or action. Well-known examples include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, and Haydn’s The Creation.

Thursday will be a day filled with events for my amusement and enjoyment, not actual work. Friday and Saturday will be three shifts of THE NUTCRACKER.

I am truly enjoying my audiobook, WASHINGTON by Ron Chernow, who also wrote HAMILTON. When I am about the house, I am quite eager to listen to the book. The storytelling, for me, ranks right up there with David McCullough. Mr. Chernow often describes the portraits painted at intervals in General Washington’s life. I often know to which portrait he refers from his description but there have been a few with which I am not familiar.

This is a link to Washington’s portraits.

And, today is the 205th birthday of First Lady Mary (nee Todd) Lincoln, born in Lexington, Kentucky.

On this date in history: (2003) Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces during the Iraq War; three years later he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and was executed. (1989) American country music singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, whose pop-infused tales of young heartache achieved widespread crossover success in the early 21st century, was born. (1956) The film drama Anastasia was released in American theatres; it marked the Hollywood comeback of Ingrid Bergman, whose extramarital affair had caused a scandal, and she won an Academy Award for her performance. (1921) The Four-Power Pact was signed during the Washington Conference by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France, stipulating that all the signatories would be consulted in the event of a controversy between two of them over “any Pacific question.”  (1862) The Battle of Fredericksburg, a bloody engagement of the American Civil War in which Confederate troops were led to victory by General Robert E. Lee over the Union forces of General Ambrose Everett Burnside, was waged. (1818) Mary Todd, who was to marry Abraham Lincoln in 1842, was born in Lexington, Kentucky.  (1545) The Council of Trent, the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, which helped revitalize the church in many parts of Europe after the Protestant Reformation, opened in Trent, Italy.

Make it a great day!