TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Chorus Opener Goes For Mass Appeal

ADVERTISEMENT

By KURT LOFT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

TAMPA - Quick: Name three great choral masterworks and ask yourself why you haven't heard any of them.

Maybe because they're too long and intimidating. Maybe you'd rather go to a movie than sit through a Requiem Mass sung in Latin. Maybe you just need a little nudge.

That nudge comes this weekend from the Tampa Oratorio Singers, the acclaimed, all-volunteer choir that each year tackles some of music's most challenging choral works. Rather than launch their 40th anniversary season with one big piece, the singers offer highlights from three.

Purists might object to abbreviating the classics, but the point is to ease newcomers into the repertoire, says Nancy Callahan, music director of the oratorio singers.

'I think it's interesting to compare them because they are among each composer's final works, written at the height of their powers,' she says. 'I think it gives a taste of the classical period without getting boring. The intimidation factor isn't there.'

Choir-in-residence at the University of Tampa, the 75-member group originally planned to do Beethoven's complete 'Missa Solemnis' but changed the program. The bill now includes highlights from the Beethoven, as well as the Mozart Requiem and 'The Creation' by Haydn. Joining the singers will be 30 musicians from The Florida Orchestra.

Beethoven's great choral work is a personal treatment of the Roman Catholic Mass, music rich in religious symbolism but fashioned as a celebration of the human spirit.

The music is at times athletic, with rapid changes in tempo and mood. In the Incarnation section, a Gregorian chant creates a sense of mysticism, and a solo flute suggests a fluttering dove - a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Mozart's Requiem is a torso - the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei were added after the composer died in 1791. Mozart's writing is evident through the eighth bar of the Lacrymosa ('Day of Tears'), the last notes he composed on his deathbed. But he left enough loose material for scholars to make educated assessments of his intentions.

The formation of this remarkable music was popularized in the 1984 Academy Award-winning film 'Amadeus.'

Creating the cosmos was no easy task, but Haydn gave it his best musical shot in the epic 'Creation' oratorio. Based on Milton's 'Paradise Lost,' the work is justly famous for its opening and the emergence from chaos, as well as its soaring choruses that remind listeners of Handel.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259- 7570 or kloft@tampa

ON STAGE
Tampa Oratorio Singers
WHAT: Excerpts of classics by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn

WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church, 3501 San Jose St., Tampa

TICKETS: $15 at the door; (813) 247-3866, www.tostampa.org

trib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT