Hallelujah

For reformers and Republicans, these are hallelujah times in Harford. County voters showed their muscle and swept the b'hoys out of office.Consider this: Political kingpin William H. Cox was ousted from the House of Delegates. So was another Democratic incumbent, Joseph Lutz. Two county councilmen, both two-term Democrats, were beaten. So was Charles B. Anderson, a former Democratic county executive attempting a political comeback. Democrat Eileen M. Rehrmann managed to capture the county executive's office, but by a slim margin of 775 votes.

Prince George's Little Theatre opens its 53rd season with "The Hallelujah Girls," giving area audiences their first opportunity to enjoy this show that celebrates all holidays — from Christmas to the Chinese New Year and ending happily on the Fourth of July. Each scene of this comedy at Bowie Playhouse is set on the eve of a holiday that is observed by frequently outrageous characters — including a quartet of well-ripened Georgia peaches who support one another as they strive for success in love and business.

An Army sergeant at Fort Meade who won a court order Thursday to change his name to Jesus Christ Hallelujah said yesterday he now wants to change it back.Sergeant Hallelujah, a staff sergeant assigned to the 741st Military Intelligence Battalion, said in a brief telephone interview that he has decided to petition the Anne Arundel Circuit Court to change his name back to the moniker he was born with: Tyrone Victor Wright.Sergeant Hallelujah made that decision a few days ago after talking it over with his family, he said.

It's hard to imagine Christmastime without Handel's Messiah. Never mind that the composer wrote it for the Lenten season or that only one-third of the score is directly related to Christmas. The piece is as much a part of the holidays as "Silent Night." And the music is pretty much indestructible. From its more or less humble origins in 1742, when it was premiered with a modest-sized chorus and orchestra, Messiah has survived major expansion (Victorians loved hearing it super-sized), both glacial and breathless tempos, operatic stuffiness and various other questionable stylistic approaches.

Gratifying as it would be to be able to shout "Hallelujah!" for the revised revival of Hallelujah, Baby! at Washington's Arena Stage, the show earns only a qualified hooray. Few if any reservations apply to the lead performances, however. There's a lot of talent on stage, not to mention pizazz and style. What there isn't is a lot of depth, and that's a major difficulty considering the weightiness of the material. Scripted by Arthur Laurents, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, this 1968 Tony Award winner attempts nothing less than an examination of race relations in this country throughout the 20th century.

It's hard to imagine Christmastime without Handel's Messiah. Never mind that the composer wrote it for the Lenten season or that only one-third of the score is directly related to Christmas. The piece is as much a part of the holidays as "Silent Night." And the music is pretty much indestructible. From its more or less humble origins in 1742, when it was premiered with a modest-sized chorus and orchestra, Messiah has survived major expansion (Victorians loved hearing it super-sized), both glacial and breathless tempos, operatic stuffiness and various other questionable stylistic approaches.

The concluding "Amen" from George Frederick Handel's "Messiah" has seldom sounded jauntier than it did Monday night when conductor Edward Polochick put 60 singers from the Baltimore Symphony Chorus through their paces in preparation for this weekend's performances of Handel's greatest oratorio."

It is well nigh impossible to recommend a definitive recording of Messiah because no definitive version of the work exists. Handel tinkered with it constantly, sprucing it up to fit the different specifications of the many performances he conducted. The autograph score of 1741 is different from the Dublin premiere copy of 1742. Handel presented different versions in London in 1743, 1745, 1749 and 1750. Then, of course, there's the Foundling Hospital incarnation of 1759. So we won't think "definitive" here, just good.

Maya Angelou, poet, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, civil-rights leader, historian, dancer, singer, actor, director, teacher, has written a new book called Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (Random House, $29.95), now in bookstores. In it, Angelou, 76, uses remembered meals and dishes as a prism through which to view her own life, its turning points and its intersections with the lives of others. "I am a writer, and I am a cook," Angelou says on the phone from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. The cooks in the vignettes of The Welcome Table take care in deciding on exactly the right dish to cook for the moment at hand.

As Michelangelo's "Pieta" is somehow able to fuse the agony of death with the miracle of birth and the wonder of eternity, so too does Handel's "Messiah" convey the essence of Christian faith.Though synonymous with Christmas, "Messiah" extends beyond the virgin birth as Handel -- working feverishly through the most miraculous 3 -week high in music history -- wove a musical tapestry encompassing the heart and soul of Christianity: birth, death and resurrection.The exultant promise of "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" mutates into the pathos of "He Was Despised" only to be reborn in the triumph of the "Hallelujah Chorus."

Gratifying as it would be to be able to shout "Hallelujah!" for the revised revival of Hallelujah, Baby! at Washington's Arena Stage, the show earns only a qualified hooray. Few if any reservations apply to the lead performances, however. There's a lot of talent on stage, not to mention pizazz and style. What there isn't is a lot of depth, and that's a major difficulty considering the weightiness of the material. Scripted by Arthur Laurents, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, this 1968 Tony Award winner attempts nothing less than an examination of race relations in this country throughout the 20th century.

Being under constant assault from Christmas music in public spaces and on the airwaves sooner and sooner each year - eventually, we'll be hearing carols right after Labor Day - is enough to stir up the inner Scrooge in anyone. I've found myself listening - truly listening - to less and less of holiday fare in recent years. Other than Barbra Streisand's first Christmas album from the 1960s (the more recent one is a pale sequel), I usually didn't even bother to slip seasonal discs into the CD player.

Maya Angelou, poet, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, civil-rights leader, historian, dancer, singer, actor, director, teacher, has written a new book called Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (Random House, $29.95), now in bookstores. In it, Angelou, 76, uses remembered meals and dishes as a prism through which to view her own life, its turning points and its intersections with the lives of others. "I am a writer, and I am a cook," Angelou says on the phone from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. The cooks in the vignettes of The Welcome Table take care in deciding on exactly the right dish to cook for the moment at hand.

The crowd could see the spirit welling up inside Bishop Neil Ellis. For more than an hour, the preacher from the Bahamas roamed the stage at Baltimore's convention center yesterday, shadow-boxing, bouncing on the balls of his feet and citing Scripture until his voice grew hoarse. "The devil is putting a beating on you," said Ellis, as his image filled five giant TV screens and organ music swelled to punctate his sentences. "Some of us are catching hell. The devil is fighting us and winning."

Set in Baltimore County (but filmed in Vancouver), Saved! is the audacious feel-good satire of 2004. It's an uproarious mixture of teen romantic comedy and clique flick, played out in fundamentalist American Eagle Christian High School. First-time director Brian Dannelly savages an extremist milieu but displays affection even for its zealots. His sweet-and-sour sense of humor ranks with Michael Ritchie's in the classic teen beauty- pageant parody Smile (1975). Saved! has no sympathy for any sect that reduces morality to small-minded behavior.

Frances Motyca Dawson swore she'd never be one of those conductors who programmed Handel's Messiah each year during the Christmas season. But after leading her first Columbia Pro Cantare Messiah in 1984, the choir's founding conductor had a change of heart. "You could have knocked me over with a feather," recalls Motyca Dawson, who will conduct Pro Cantare's 20th performance of George Frederick Handel's great and grand oratorio at Jim Rouse Theatre on Sunday. "It was like a conversion to a cause.

YESTERDAY I was about to declare a total victory in my battle with the Christmas tree when I saw the dark green extension cord was missing. This cord, which was supposed to connect the tree lights to the wall outlet, was also supposed to blend in with the greenery, making it appear as if the tree were illuminated by magic, not dad.It was the seamless electricity look I was after, and I was angry that it had eluded me. Instead of a pleasing Christmas-green, the...

For more than 200 years, some sort of dramatic playacting has been available in Charm City.But it is likely that nothing ever presented here could equal the overpowering thud created by a show that came to town during World War II. This show, making its debut in Baltimore, arrived with good credentials and left with disastrous results. What made things worse was that its sponsor was one of four or five of the greatest showbiz tunesmiths of the early 20th century, Vincent Youmans.The "Vincent Youmans Revue," a variety show to end all variety shows, lumbered into Baltimore's Lyric Theater one week in January of 1944, with Broadway hopes.

A joyful noise arose when members of Antioch Apostolic Church met to worship yesterday morning. Members of the congregation sang, clapped, danced and shouted "Hallelujah!" Mothers balanced babies on swaying hips as nearby parishioners raised their hands skyward. A few miles down Ritchie Highway in Arnold their 20-year-old church building -- which some members helped to build -- lay in ruins. Its sanctuary collapsed Tuesday under the weight of last week's record snowstorm, leaving a pile of gnarled siding and insulation where hundreds had come to find solace.

It is well nigh impossible to recommend a definitive recording of Messiah because no definitive version of the work exists. Handel tinkered with it constantly, sprucing it up to fit the different specifications of the many performances he conducted. The autograph score of 1741 is different from the Dublin premiere copy of 1742. Handel presented different versions in London in 1743, 1745, 1749 and 1750. Then, of course, there's the Foundling Hospital incarnation of 1759. So we won't think "definitive" here, just good.