Chestnuts are not only for roasting on open fires. Each December, arts organizations cash in on the unfathomable frenzy for certain holiday favorites, Messiah and The Nutcracker. The former is Handel’s most performed — let’s face it, disturbingly over-performed — oratorio. It is without doubt a work of great beauty, which I could probably learn to love again in a few years if I had not had to perform in some version of it every…