Yes, leenia, people in other places whoop and roar in delight at Handel’s Messiah. Stratford, Ontario, for example.

Another choral work that gets the blood up to that extent is Orff’s Carmina Burana. When I sang it with the University of Ottawa chorus, the audience stamped and howled until the conductor turned around, raised his baton, and kicked off an encore of O Fortuna. Then they stamped and howled again until the stage manager turned on the house lights and the orchestra began putting their instruments away.