Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem continues to send a powerful message long after it was first performed in 1961. The modernist masterpiece presents enormous challenges of scale, challenges embraced and conveyed by the San Francisco Symphony with guest conductor Philippe Jordan, the Silicon Valley-based Ragazzi Boys Chorus, soprano Jennifer Holloway, tenor Ian Bostridge and baritone Brian Mulligan, a Last minute replacement for Iain Paterson who was kept away due to visa issues.

The Requiem was commissioned to mark the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in England, which was destroyed along with the rest of the city in a bombing raid in 1940. Britten’s music, performed in the new cathedral next to the ruins of the old church, was then as now a bitter cry about what the text calls “the pity of war” – the terrible effects of aggression on human lives.

The Requiem sets the Latin text of the Catholic funeral mass to music, using a large orchestra with a correspondingly large choir and a soprano soloist. Far from the stage, a children’s choir echoes from the Latin Mass (in this case, from the corridor behind the second floor of Davies Hall). In Britten’s hands, the liturgy offers some moments of comfort, such as at a funeral, but moments of peace are often drowned out in horrifying apocalyptic scenarios.

Benjamin Britten rehearses his War Requiem in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral

Britten’s masterpiece in crafting a requiem for the war-torn 20th century was to contrast the liturgical with a more personal, secular perspective. He drew on the poems of Wilfred Owen, who died in World War I just a week before the armistice. Britten, a master at setting English poetry to music, brings out the painful range of emotions of a soldier in the trenches – fear, sadness, longing and tenderness. Owen’s lyrics are performed by a smaller chamber orchestra playing in intimate counterpoint with the tenor and baritone soloists.

The Requiem was the only piece on the program that was performed without an intermission. Jordan directed these many forces with alert precision and control, keeping steady beat where needed, as in the wild fugue Britten wrote for the Latin text “Quam olim Abrahae promisti” (Which thou [God] once promised to Abraham). The orchestra was full of lively percussion – bells, drums and all sorts of clacks and gongs. The brass made a tremendous contribution with bugle calls and ominous trumpets. As the choir sang Judgment Day, the orchestra murmured and swayed in powerful counterpoint to the terrified voices. The chorus skillfully handled Britten’s extraordinarily wide dynamic range – from the softest whisper to the loudest screech. Guest choir director Joshua Habermann prepared the symphony choir.

Britten counterpoints God’s promise of protection at the hour of death and on the day of judgment with Owen’s poem about Abraham and Isaac, sung by the baritone and tenor soloists. Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, and he dutifully prepares. In the biblical account, the command is revoked by an angel who offers a ram in place of the boy. In a tender duet, the two soloists expressed the angel’s intervention in a moving way. But Owen writes: “The old man would not do that, but killed his son. . .” and the music follows with a relentless reiteration of the gruesome consequences: “. . . and half the seed of Europe, one at a time.”

Ian Bostridge | Photo credit: Kalpesh Lathigra

Brian Mulligan’s confident, full baritone accentuated Owen’s tone of hopelessness and regret, particularly in the work’s moving final episode, in which a dead German soldier meets his English enemy and greets him as ‘my friend’. By contrast, Ian Bostridge tended to emphasize the irony of war, his notes devoid of sentimentality and seeming suffused with pain, swaying up and down the scale with manic glissandi. I will not soon forget Bostridge’s powerful rendition of ‘Move him into the sun’, Owen’s Pietà for a Dead Friend. The chamber orchestra contributed lively soundscapes of trench warfare – the howling of shells and the anxious drama of life in the trenches.

The powerful clarity of soprano Jennifer Mulligan brought a soulful tension to the Latin liturgy – there is no superficial religiosity here! Her proclamation of Sanctus – “Holy” – pierced the din of drums and bells like a beam of light across a dark battlefield.

The guys from the Ragazzi Chorus were excellently prepared by their artistic director Kent Jue and sang beautifully, spatially and musically far removed from the dark imaginations and struggles of the people in the war.

On opening night, when I heard the Requiem, there were a few glitches in the early sections – the orchestra was not as rhythmically tight as it could have been, the choir trembled at the Kyrie’s very difficult intonations. It took some time for Mulligan to find his consonants and for Bostridge to stop singing into his score. But as soon as the play really got going, the insecurities of the first evening disappeared.

The rest was magnificent, a complex and deeply human indictment of aggression and military force that is still—or perhaps increasingly—needed in these times.

The post San Francisco Symphony Delivers The Antiwar Message Of Britten’s Struggle Requiem appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

On November 3rd and 4th, the Sarasota Youth Opera is presenting a revival of its acclaimed production of Benjamin Britten’s charming opera The Little Sweep, which was last seen in 2013. The opera will be preceded by a prologue specially created for the Sarasota Youth Opera by the conductor and Youth Opera, music director Jesse Martins and director Martha Collins (Rootabaga Country, The Secret World of Og).

The Little Sweep – a moral story with a relevant message for today’s world

Set in early 19th century Boston, The Little Sweep is an enchanting story with a positive message about inclusion and collaboration. The little chimney sweep Sammy is put into service by his impoverished family and bullied by the mean old sweeper. Little Sammy is endangered in his dangerous and dirty work when he is cleaning the chimneys in the home of a wealthy family. In the end, a group of friendly and resourceful children – supported by their young governess – save the day. The opera will be performed in English, with English titles displayed above the stage. The running time including the prologue is approx. 70 minutes and is therefore perfect for families with children.

There are 90 children in the cast of The Little Sweep, with three of the adult roles being played by members of the Sarasota Opera Studio Artist and Apprentice Artist programs. All aspects of production – including lighting, costumes, sets, sets, props, wigs, and makeup – are provided by the professional Sarasota Opera’s staff, giving youth opera members a remarkable opportunity to work with seasoned experts.

The British composer Benjamin Britten wrote the opera especially for children’s voices. The composer devoted himself to the idea of ​​educating young people in the musical arts and in another of his works – The Young People’s Guide to the Orchestra – introduced millions of young audiences to classical music and the distinctive sound of every orchestral instrument.

In addition to the opera, the production includes a prologue that explains how an opera is conceived and produced, as well as supporting content related to The Little Sweep. The audience sees the sets change before their eyes. Every member of Sarasota Youth Opera takes part in this prologue, created by Music Director and Conductor of Youth Opera Jesse Martins and Director of Sarasota Youth Opera, Martha Collins.

Sarasota Opera is proud to partner with Embracing Our Differences to bring students and teachers from Sarasota and Manatee Counties to a special school matinee from The Little Sweep on Monday, November 5th at 10:30 am. Participants are invited to sing along to the last music number of the show. Materials to prepare students for their debut at Sarasota Opera are included in a teaching material handbook distributed to teachers. This special matinee is provided to schools for free (transportation courtesy of Embracing Our Differences & Tickets courtesy of Sarasota Opera).

Benjamin Britten’s little swing

Sung in English with English titles over the stage?

November 3, 2018 at 5.30 p.m. and November 4, 2018 at 12.30 p.m.

A Sarasota Youth Opera production

Ticket information

Family Pack tickets (up to 2 adults and 4 children) are only $ 65 and are available by calling (941) 328-1300 or the Sarasota Opera Box Office at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236.

Single tickets are $ 15 for children and $ 30 for adults, and can be purchased at sarasotaopera.org and at the Sarasota Opera box office. For more information, contact the box office at (941) 328-1300.

ABOUT THE YOUTH OPERA SARASOTA

Since 1984, Sarasota Youth Opera has given thousands of young people the opportunity to experience opera firsthand by participating in extra-curricular choirs, Sarasota Opera’s main stage productions, summer workshops, and fully staged Youth Opera productions. As the only program in the United States that pledges to present full annual opera productions for young voices willing to include anyone who wants to participate regardless of skill level or ability to pay, Sarasota Youth Opera is a national model for opera education .

Youth opera choirs: From the age of 8, singers are divided into one of two choir levels. Each choir provides a framework for everyone to participate and advance at their own level as they gain greater skills and experience. The selection listed consists of classical music that includes operatic and choral pieces in various languages. The choirs perform in formal concerts and outreach events throughout the community.

Opera’s main stage season: Members of the youth opera are selected to participate in the Sarasota Opera’s winter festival season to perform in the main stage children’s choir, as extras (extras who play non-singing roles) and for special roles by the composer for children’s voices. In the last few seasons these have been roles in La bohème, Tosca, Carmen and – at the coming Winter Festival 2019 – in the Magic Flute and in Turandot. Singers are involved in the entire production process – from early music to dramatic rehearsals and performances with opera professionals.

Youth Opera Productions: Part of Sarasota Opera’s commitment to young people includes commissioning new opera works for children and young adults. Six new works were presented as part of this mission: Deadline (1989), Polly Pens Her Lightness (1993), Tom Sutas Eye of Ra (1998), John Kennedy’s The Language of Birds (2004), Daron Hagens Little Nemo in Slumberland (2012 ) and Rachel J. Peters’ Rootabaga Country (2017). Members are involved in the creation of each opera, complete with professional staging, costumes, lighting, sound, and orchestral accompaniment.

The post Sarasota Youth Opera Will Heat Hearts With Benjamin Britten’s THE LITTLE SWEEP appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.