Handel fans can follow bouncing ball at special choral concert.

Byline: FRED CRAFTS The Register-Guard

GEORGE FREDERIC Handel's "Messiah" has choruses - "Hallelujah" being one - that make you want to sing along.

And that's what Diane Retallack, the Eugene Concert Choir artistic director and conductor, is inviting the public to do at 7 p.m. Friday at the First Baptist Church in Eugene, 868 High St.

Tickets, at $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and students, are available at the Hult Center box office and at the door.

` `Messiah' is one of the most-beloved choral works of all time," Retallack said. `People just absolutely love it.'

Instead of having the Eugene Concert Choir sing "Messiah" while many audience members hum it softly to themselves, Retallack is giving the public an opportunity to really sing out.

Retallack believes that some 800 people can be accommodated in the church's sanctuary, on the main floor and in the balcony. She intends to put about 100 singers in the onstage choir loft, while she stands in the center of the space to conduct the audience and a 23-piece orchestra.

As a result, she will have singers behind her, in front of her and above her.

"This will be sort of surround sound," she said. "We will divide everyone up into sections; the sopranos will all be seated together, the altos, the tenors, the basses."

To provide stability, the 90 members of the Eugene Concert Choir will be seated throughout the sanctuary, sprinkled among the community participants.

Besides singing the big choruses (all of the famous choruses in the "Christmas" portion, plus most of the other well-known choruses), Retallack also will ask the public to sing the arias. (She is omitting the tricky recitatives and a few other portions).

To sing the entire "Messiah" would be "too much of a marathon," Retallack said. `Some of the choruses and arias aren't well known enough that just anybody could sing it at the drop of a hat. The recitatives take real rehearsal.

"I also thought it would be fun to do the arias, rather than having everybody sit and listen while one soloist sang. We're giving everybody an opportunity to shine as soloists.

`It remains to be seen how it will come together, when you have an entire section of sopranos singing `Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion,' which is a very agile aria. But I know many people have heard it so many times they probably could sing it."

Retallack figures her trimmed-down `Messiah' will take about two hours.

Those attending the event are asked to bring a copy of the choral score. For those who don't have a score, Wilson Music House will sell copies prior to the concert (at $7.50 each) either at the store or at the door.

"If people want to brush up on something," Retallack advised, `they should look at the final chorus, `Worthy Is the Lamb.' We will conclude with that.'

Retallack - who conducted the choir's productions of "Messiah" in 1993, 1995 and 1999 - said she hopes the event "will create a warm sense of community, not only to come together but to all participate together in singing something that really is a significant element in our humanity."

Elsewhere on the choral horizon, the University Singers and UO Chamber Choir, directed by UO associate professor Sharon Paul, will present a holiday choral concert at 8 p.m. Saturday in Beall Concert Hall at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave.

Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

A harp ensemble will play seasonal music in the lobby prior to the concert. The program will feature the 23-voice UO Chamber Choir in the first half and the 44-voice University Singers in the second. The audience will be invited to join in a carol sing-along between sections of the program.

The Chamber Choir will open with early English anthems by Thomas Tallis, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Tomkins. Two works using bird images will follow. One, "Song of the Birds" by Clement Janequin, is a 16th century work in which the singers actually imitate French bird calls.

The program also includes a new piece, "Into the Hour of New Life," written by associate professor Robert Kyr in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The work had its world premiere last month in Portland.

After intermission, the University Singers will sing four spirituals: "Keep Your Lamps" (featuring Tracy Freeze on congas), "Deep River," "Dan-u-el" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." They also will sing one of Giuseppe Verdi's final works - a setting of the Ave Maria text - plus the traditional "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

MESSIAH

WHAT: The Eugene Concert Choir hosts a community sing-along of G.F. Handel's "Messiah"; directed by Diane Retallack

WHEN: 7 p.m., Friday

WHERE: First Baptist Church, 868 High St.

HOW MUCH: $10 and $15 through the Hult Center box office, 682-5000

GUARDLINE: To hear excerpts from "Messiah," call the GuardLine at 485-2000 from a touch-tone phone and request category 3733