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Opera SacraThursday 12 June 6.30pmChristchurch Town HallPatricia Wright - soprano • Rachelle Pike - mezzo
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OPERA SACRA introduces a new concert concept to Christchurch audiences, which music director Brian Law has been planning for more than two years, with sacred music written by three great Italian opera composers performed by the Christchurch City Choir. It will combine the talents of the Choir with four soloists - soprano Patricia Wright, mezzo Rachelle Pike, tenor Jamie Allen and baritone James Harrison – and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra to present excerpts from works such as the youthful Puccini’s Messa di Gloria (written when he was 22 year old) and the much-loved, intense and dramatic Requiem by Verdi (completed 1874) when he was at the peak of his career.
“In their careers the great Italian opera composers, Rossini, Verdi and Puccini, found time to write exciting and dramatic music for performance in the Church. They brought the fire and passion of their finest operas to these sacred texts,” Brian Law said. “OPERA SACRA will give our concert going audience a taste of opera, each of the soloists has fine dramatic arias to sing, and the excerpts combine to make a balanced, beautiful and at times breathtaking concert.
”The original idea for this programme began with the sad demise of Canterbury Opera in late 2006, when Brian Law wanted to keep opera in the public eye. “Of course since then Southern Opera has emerged so the initial need is not now there, but the concept for a very interesting and unusual programme had taken shape,” Brian Law said. He conducted last year’s Carmen, the inaugural production of Southern Opera. “Virtually all Italian opera composers turned their hand to sacred music at some point in their careers. The connection between opera and the church seemed an obvious one to explore musically.”
The programme will include excerpts from Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Te Deum from Tosca, and Verdi’s Requiem. Brian Law said the final choice of composers became easy as Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) were the foremost Italian opera composers of their respective eras.
“Rossini’s Stabat Mater is an example of his finest operatic style, with daunting technical requirements and beautiful arias demanding great technique and artistry of the soloists – who de rigeur must be opera singers – not light voiced church musicians.”
“Puccini’s Messa di Gloria is an absolutely charming youthful work by the young Puccini. It is light hearted, exuberant and almost impudent, not giving much indication of the mature composer of later years. It is a work I’ve wanted to perform in Christchurch for some time but it was hard to fit into a regular concert, so this chance to perform a healthy excerpt seemed a good opportunity. It also gives the City Choir a great chance to flaunt its stuff.”
Choir member Judy Yarwood said the young Puccini’s work was a delight to learn. “This youthful, accessible and yet dramatic and thoughtful work explores and exposes a wide range of emotions and can lift the spirit to levels seldom reached in today’s secular world.”
TheDies Irae from Verdi’s Requiem is the main workin the second half of the concert programme.
“Verdi was at the height of his creative power writing this most sublime setting. Old wags call the Requiem‘Verdi’s finest opera’ and it will be a concert highlight without doubt. The soloists, chorus and orchestra all get a great work out and the audience is treated to some of the most spine-tingling and dramatic church music ever composed. It’s the perfect work for such a concert.”
“We are ending the concert with a reversal of the concert format. The great liturgical Te Deum is heard at the end of Act I in Puccini’s opera Tosca. Including this excerpt is perhaps a bit cheeky on my part, but it’s the one great example of a composer taking the drama of the church into the opera house and a stunning example of the mature composer, so different from the youthful Messa di Gloria,” Brian Law said.
During WW2 hundreds of prisoners in the Terezin Nazi transit camp (1941-45, in Czechoslovakia en route to Auschwitz) performed Verdi’s Requiem as a passive protest to their captors. In 2006 American musicians performed the Requiem in the same cap as a tribute to the victims and survivors.
"Here it is then, this poor little Mass. Have I written truly sacred music, or just damn bad music? I was born for opera buffa, as you well know. Not much skill, but quite a bit of feeling - that's how I'd sum it up. Blessed be thy name, and grant me a place in Paradise". Rossini (Messa di Gloria was written between 1832-42)
First performed in 1880. Puccini composed the Mass as his graduation exercise from the istituto Musicale Pacini. He never published the full manuscript and although well received at the time, it was not performed again until 1952 - but he re-used some themes in other works, such as the Agnus Dei inManon Lescaut.