But years of experience has also taught the founding artistic director of Victoria Baroque that when life presents you with a golden programming opportunity, you seize it especially when it involves Handel’s Messiah, one of the surest events of the Christmas season. “Typically, December is filled with Messiahs in Victoria,” Stratkauskas said. “When we realized because of COVID it was going to be a small-scale year, we thought we could do a very nice, small-scale Messiah.” Victoria Baroque is tackling Handel’s enduring hit for the first time Thursday with an all-star roster of Vancouver Island soloists and chamber musicians, ranging from Isaiah Bell, one of the top tenors in the country, to violinist Christi Meyers, the assistant concertmaster of the Victoria Symphony.