Video: 'Royal Choral Society: 'Hallelujah Chorus' from Handel's Messiah'

(Tuesday, April 13, 1742, noon local time) — Messiah, an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel featuring the “Hallelujah” chorus, had its first public performance today at the Great Music Hall in Dublin, Ireland.

Video: 'G. F. Handel: Messiah HWV 56 (fantastic performance)'

Seven hundred people attended today’s premiere. So that the largest possible audience could be admitted to the concert, gentlemen were requested to remove their swords, and ladies were asked not to wear hoops in their dresses.

After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.