The work's unsinkable popularity was confirmed in this highly enjoyable Arts Festival performance, by turns zingy and introspective, and sporting every colour bar grey. Christophers kept the action moving slickly, regularly tweaking details in the instrumental ensemble's rock-solid support. The chorus delivered faultlessly from a technical standpoint but often sounded once-removed from the emotions, not simply by being small in number but also by being consciously restrained by Christophers in volume and edge.

The four soloists commanded an impressive narrative flair, sometimes captivating more by a sense of theatricality, however, than the quality of voice that Handel puts so roundly to the test. The exception was counter-tenor Robin Blaze, whose beguiling shifts in tone and responsiveness to textual shading were exemplary throughout. You would have to go a long way before hearing a more telling performance of He was despised.

Tenor James Gilchrist led the pack in terms of projection; bass Matthew Brook hooked us with dramatic presence; soprano Gillian Keith trod a middle path. And did the local audience oblige tradition by rising for the Hallelujah chorus? Yes, in a bemused, Mexican wave sort of way.