Chorus pro Musica, under the leadership of Music Director Betsy Burleigh, will present a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle featuring lyric coloratura soprano Carole Haber, mezzo-soprano Hillary Nicholson, tenor William Hite and bass Paul Guttry, on Sunday, March 20, 2011, 3:00 PM, at Old South Church [Copley Square, 645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116].
Gioachino Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, completed just five years before his death in 1868, was Rossini's last major work, after a period of over 30 years during which he published no new music except his Stabat mater. Rossini called it “the last of my sins of old age.” It created an immediate sensation, notwithstanding the comment, attributed to Napoleon III, that the work was “neither petite, nor solemn, nor particularly liturgical.” Like all of Rossini's music, it is melodic, spirited, and irresistibly engaging. “Petite” only in instrumental accompaniment—two pianos and harmonium—the Mass includes exquisite writing for four soloists and chorus that makes it a fitting climax to the life of the man considered the greatest Italian composer of his time.
By the way, March 14, 2011 is the 147th anniversary of the first performance of Rossini's Petite messe solennelle. The work was first performed on March 14, 1864 at the home of Count Alexis and Countess Louise Pillet-Will at 12 rue de Moncey in Paris. The occasion was the dedication of the chapel in the newly-built home. Rossini stood behind the accompanists, indicated the tempo for each section, and turned the pages. Attendance was by invitation only. Among those attending was the ailing, impressionable Meyerbeer, who stood throughout the performance, trembling, sometimes raising his arms, sometimes weeping.
On the following day there was a larger performance for a very distinguished audience of government officials and luminaries (but apparently not Rossini). The critic for Le pays was struck by the diversity of the scene:
“Rossini [who was not present] would have enjoyed a rare spectacle that some attentive persons noticed: a Mass, a religious piece, performed at 10:00 at night in front of an audience of women dressed to the nines, to inaugurate the mansion of a Protestant patrician, before the Papal nuncio, who spoke with goodly courtesy to the Ambassador from Turkey, while a Jewish artist [Jules Cohen] directed the orchestra.”
Petite Messe Solennelle was never performed in a Catholic church during Rossini's lifetime because the Pope refused to allow women to sing in church, despite Rossini's request. (Rossini did not like boy trebles as a substitute for women's voices.)
Lyric coloratura soprano Carole Haber won the N. Meyer Baker Award and the Eleanor Steber Music Foundation Award at the 1989 Washington International Voice Competition at the Kennedy Center. She is well known for her interpretations in the Mozartian and Bel Canto styles. She made her operatic debut as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. Her performances of this role throughout the East Coast have been highly acclaimed by The New York Times, High Fidelity, Opera News and The Boston Globe, among others.
Mezzo-Soprano Hillary Nicholson has performed leading roles with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States. She has appeared as Carmen with the Sacramento Opera, Emilia in Otello with the Tampa Bay Opera, Dame Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff with the Mississippi Opera and the Opera Festival of New Jersey, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Ocean State Lyric Opera and Ma Moss in Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land with the Skylight Opera Theatre, a performance taped for broadcast on Public Television.
Tenor William Hite has been described by the Boston Globe as “a breathtaking communicator.” The San Francisco Chronicle remarked that Hite in Purcell's King Arthur “lavished the music with considerable eloquence” and the Wall Street Journal deemed his Apollo in Monteverdi's Orfeo “outstanding.”
Bass-baritone Paul Guttry is a former member of Chanticleer and of the medieval music ensemble Sequentia. He has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, Handel & Haydn, and Collage New Music and has concertized throughout the United States and internationally with the Boston Camerata, Chanticleer and the Ensemble for Early Music. He can be heard on recordings on the BMG, Erato, and Koch International labels.
Tickets:
Concert tickets are $25, $40 and $50, with discounts available on selected seats for groups, students, seniors and WGBH members. Reserved seats may be selected and tickets purchased at www.choruspromusica.org, or by phone (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) at 800-658-4CPM (800-658-4276). For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.
Elegant Dinner & Cocktail Party at St. Botolph Club Following Concert:
The concert will be immediately followed by Chorus pro Musica’s Elegant Dinner and Cocktail Party at the beautiful St. Botolph Club located at 199 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, about 2.5 blocks from Old South Church. Tickets to the gala dinner will be $500 and will include VIP seating at the concert AND a chance to win “Dinner for Six” prepared by the fabulous chef Joyce Della Chiesa and held at the home of one of the board members of Chorus pro Musica. In addition to “Dinner for Six,” the winner will receive an invitation to the gala reception held after the June 5 afternoon concert featuring Symphony of Psalms at Jordan Hall. All funds raised from the dinner and raffle will go toward the support of Chorus pro Musica and its concert season. Gala dinner tickets can be purchased at www.choruspromusica.org.
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