This is the most creative recording of Handel's Messiah I have seen.
The alto Hellecant does a very passionate, quite remarkable version of "He was despised". The soprano aria "How beautiful are the feet" is moving, and the images shown along with it are coherent. I found the most inspired selection of visuals to be for the track "The trumpet shall sound", which features Christian weight-lifters strutting their stuff, its quite funny and so appropriate for the song! William Klein has been sensitive enough not to show images from outside the studio for songs such as "Thou shalt break them", choosing to film instead the tenor's face at close-range, revealing all his concentration and intensity: the singer's expression is a better illustration for this song than any scene Klein could have found elsewhere.
Despite Handel's German origin, The Messiah was composed in England and the original libretto is from the English Bible. In this case it is being performed by the French Musiciens du Louvre, in English.
*It does contain one VERY GRUESOME scene of violence, shown in the "Why do the nations" track. Simply skip that track or else do not show it to kids.*
