I---sa-bella! Isabella! Isabella! I---sa-bella!

Last night The Great Ducknik got her first Christmas present: tickets to see Handel's Messiah at Symphony Hall. Plot and BZWZ accompanied her, and Plot has to admit he was amazed.

The music was written in 1741. In 2007, Symphony Hall, and Symphony halls around the world, are still filled with people anxious to hear this piece. Not a bad epitaph for a composer.

Duck remembers many of the airs and recetatives (they sound exactly the same to Plottie) from her church choir when she was a little girl. So she has a special attraction to the music. And the San Francisco Symphony Chorus is truly magnificent.

But...ya know. There are fifteen minutes of exquisite music ("Hallelujah!" and "Wonderful!" and "something about sheep."). But the piece is almost three hours long. Let's just say it drags a bit, in Plotnik's estimation. Act Two is v e r y long. Fortunately for Plot, a man in the front row of the second balcony, to the right and below where the Plotnik seats were, fell asleep and clonked his head on the balcony protector. He jerked back into his seat where his girl friend totally ignored him. If the protector hadn't been there the poor guy would have fallen onto this morning's front page. That was good for ten solid minutes of humor.

Plot needed the humor then -- though the bass singer helped. He sounded like a snow blower - eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh -- and looked VERY serious all the while. If they ever get him started he probably has quite a voice.

But "The Messiah" is not about humor -- intentionally, anyway. So you have to add your own -- fortunately Handel is big on singing about 'the magnificent lamb' so Plotnik could keep adding in his mind 'and his succulent chops.'

When the Plotniks got home from the symphony, Baby Isabella was here! Ha--llelujah! I mean I---sabella! Isabella! Isabella!