For the first of their two annual performances the Manx Festival Chorus will be joined by members of the Sale and Oldham Choral Societies and the North West Festival Chorus from the UK, with a total over 100 performers, to perform Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’ at Braddan Church on Saturday May 16th at 7.30pm.
There is never a moment’s doubt when listening to the Petite Messe that Rossini was quintessentially a man of the theatre. The arias and choruses are of operatic leanings. The Mass though, was one of those late works that Rossini wrote long after he had abandoned opera with William Tell in 1829,the period when Rossini was writing what he called his “sins of old age”, and in this performance it will be performed in the original scoring which is for piano and harmonium. The performance will lifts the spirits either through the sheer beauty of the vocal writing or through such numbers as the gorgeously tripping fugue with which Rossini clothes one of the great choruses “Cum sancto spiritu” which brings an airy bounce allied to the sort of mounting excitement that could have graced any of his operatic finales. The four soloists – Karen Johnson, Lara Harvey, Alexander Grainger and Alastair McCall considerably add to the dramatic impact with pianist Russell Medley and resident organist of Braddan Church, Graham Kirkland playing the part written for Harmonium. The conductor is John Bethell who has been director of the Manx Festival Chorus since its foundation in 1967.
Tickets are available from the Erin Arts Centre and members of the Manx Festival Chorus, or on the day at Braddan Church, priced ?10.
