At the end of this past May, when American Bach Soloists (ABS) announced its plans to resume performances, those plans included the December tradition of three performances of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 oratorio Messiah at Grace Cathedral and the return of A Baroque New Year’s Eve at the Opera. At that time, neither performers nor programming had been finalized for the New Year’s Eve concert. That information is now available, along with a slight change of plans for the Grace Cathedral schedule.
The first of the three concerts at Grace will be a special abridged performance. The program will begin with Part I (the Christmas portion) of Messiah and will conclude with the “Hallelujah” chorus, which concludes Part II. The ABS instrumentalists and the American Bach Choir will be joined by four vocal soloists: soprano Nola Richardson, mezzo Sarah Coit, tenor James Reese, and bass Alex Rosen. Artistic Director Jeffrey Thomas will conduct.
Between these two selections, however, there will be two instrumental offerings. The first of these will be the eighth of the twelve concerti grossi in Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 6 collection of twelve. This was given the title “Fatto per la notte de Natale” (made for the night of Christmas); and it is now best known as the “Christmas Concerto.” This will be followed by the two compositions by Marc-Antoine Charpentier entitled “Noël pour les instruments.” The remaining two concerts will be devoted to performing HWV 56 in its entirety with the same vocal soloists.
These three performances will all take place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 15, Thursday, December 16, and Friday, December 17, respectively. Grace Cathedral is located at the top of Nob Hill at 1100 California Street, between Taylor Street and Jones Street. Ticket prices for all concerts range between $25 and $125. All tickets may be purchased through the same ABS Web page powered by Tix.
The interior and exterior of Herbst Theatre, which will host the ABS New Year’s Eve concert (from the event page for that performance)
Thomas will also conduct the ABS instrumentalists for the New Year’s Eve concert. They will be joined by soprano Liv Redpath and bass Alex Rosen. The program will consist of arias, duets, and instrumental music from the Baroque opera repertoire. Handel will again be the featured composer with selections from Giulio Cesare (HWV 17), Radamisto (HWV 12), “Terpsichore,” the prologue to the opera Il pastor fido (HWV 8), Semele (HWV 58), and the secular cantata Apollo e Dafne (HWV 122). The other composers on the program will be Henry Purcell (King Arthur), Jean-Philippe Rameau (Hippolyte et Aricie), and Antonio Vivaldi (La fida ninfa).
This performance will begin at 4 p.m. on Friday, December 31, and last for about two hours (leaving plenty of time to ring in the New Year). The performance will be held in Herbst Theatre, which is located on the southwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and McAllister Street. Ticket prices range between again range between $25 and $125. However, these are being sold through a City Box Office Web page.
No comments:
Post a Comment