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'Wonderful choral tapestry': Choirs join forces to present Rossini mass

Performance features a number of guest soloists
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The Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. (Supplied)

Laurentian University's Department of Music presents a performance of the Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle Friday, March 6. 

Two university choirs join together to perform this monumental work — the Laurentian University Choir and Sudbury Studio Singers, under the direction of Robert Hall. 

Laurentian University Choir has presented a large choral work every spring for the past 25 years. 

Sudbury Studio Singers have joined them for the past three years of their existence and the union of the ensembles has produced some of the most memorable concerts in Sudbury, said a press release.

The Rossini mass, while not as well-known as such works as Handel’s Messiah, exhibits a wonderful choral tapestry that is joined together by superb solos that display Rossini’s flair for vocal writing that is usually only heard in his many operas such as William Tell and The Barber of Seville.

The soloists featured in the performance are being specially brought in for their vocal skills. 

Soprano Casey Peden is returning from Saskatchewan for her third appearance with the choir. Mezzo-soprano Andrea Ludwig, also originally from Saskatchewan, now freelances in Toronto and sings across Canada in opera and oratorio. 

Tenor Marcel d’Entremont sings out of Montreal and has appeared in Sudbury previously in operatic performance. 

Baritone Peter McGillivray now makes his home in Sudbury but sings across North America in a full-time opera career, having recently returned from a run in Edmonton. The Rossini will be presented in its original orchestration with piano and organ with Charlene Biggs and Nathan Nykor supporting the vocal displays. 

It has been justifiably said that Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle is neither petite (small) or solennelle (solemn) but it certainly does supply a wonderful display of vocal and choral lyricism, the press release said.

In all likelihood, this is Sudbury’s first performance of the work, which was composed in 1863, some 34 years after Rossini retired from writing operas. 

Singers are delighted that he came out of his composing retirement to write this masterpiece, after writing which he penned a note to God, saying “Be merciful then, and admit me to Paradise.”

The concert takes place at St. Andrew's Place (111 Larch St. downtown) starting at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $20 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors. They're available at the door or at Rehan's Your Independent Grocer.


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