Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Glorious Puccini Messa di Gloria & Opera Highlights

Choral Singing / Classical Music

 

Glorious Puccini: Messa di Gloria & Opera Highlights

Date: Saturday 29 October | 8pm
Venue: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Experience the passion and power of Puccini's music sung by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' 300-voice Festival Chorus choristers, four of Australia's star soloists and the talented musicians of The Sydney Youth Orchestra .

 

Image credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
 

How do we love Puccini? Let us count the ways…

There’s his sense of drama and his concern for human stories and real emotion but, above all, we love the glorious, flowing melodies that stay in your ears long after the curtain comes down. We love the sensuousness of Manon Lescaut, the grand tragedy of Tosca, the heart-rending pathos of Madama Butterfly – guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes – and the mystery of Turandot. This is the Puccini we know and love, and for this gala concert, Brett Weymark has assembled highlights to showcase the 400 voices of the Festival Chorus and our soloists – stars of the operatic stage. We’ll be joined by the Sydney Youth Orchestra in full force – performing Puccini’s colourful orchestrations without compromise.            

But first we’ll be revealing a little-known side of Puccini. He might have decided upon a career as an opera composer at the age of 18 – inspired by Verdi’s Aida – but he came from a long line of church musicians and the culmination of his musical studies was the ambitious Messa di Gloria. This rarely heard mass setting hints at the opera composer to come, with generous melodies and the way he brings drama to the ritual. But, above all, it’s 40 minutes of high-octane choral singing – joyous, dancing and, yes, fun!

 

 Credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

PROGRAM

Deborah CHEETHAM & Matthew DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here*
Giacomo PUCCINI Messa di Gloria
Highlights from Puccini operas…
Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo
Tosca: Te Deum (Tre sbirri, una carrozza)
Madama Butterfly: Humming Chorus and other highlights from Act II
Turandot: Nessun dorma and other highlights
* Commissioned for our 100 Minutes of New Australian Music project

A digital program book will be available on this page a week prior to the concert. A limited number of printed program books will be available for $5 each at the concert.

ARTISTS

Brett Weymark conductor
Cheryl Barker soprano
Antoinette Halloran soprano
Bradley Daley tenor
Peter Coleman-Wright baritone
Festival Chorus
Sydney Youth Orchestra

TICKETS

Premium $124 | A $101 | B $79 | C $58 | D $45
Concessions $112 | A $90| B $71 | C $52 | D $41
A booking fee of $8.50 per transaction applies.

Review: 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Glorious Puccini. Sydney Arts Guide, written by Annabelle Drumm, 31 October 2022. Accessed 10 Nov 2022.

Interesting Articles:  

Glorious Puccini: Messa di Gloria and Opera Highlights, Sydney Opera House.  AussieTheatre.com.  20 September 2022. Accessed  9 October 2022.

Puccini's Musical Mastery Glows in a Forgotten Mass. The New York Times / Art. By Raymond Ericson, dated April 8, 1984.

Resources:

2022 Season Together Again. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Artistic & Music Director Brett Weymark, OAM

Glorious Puccini: Messa di Gloria & Opera Highlights. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.  (Available on access, 9 October 2022.)

 

COVID-19 SAFETY

• All SPC singers, musicians and staff are double vaccinated.
• Audiences will be required to wear masks throughout the performance. If this changes we will inform patrons as soon as possible.
• Hand sanitiser will be available.
• A digital program book will be available on this page a week prior to the concert. A limited number of printed program books will be available for $5 each at the concert.

DETAILS ABOUT SPC COVID SAFE PLAN

(c) 9 October 2022.  Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Jubilation: Handel & Haydn

Choral Singing / Classical Music

 

Jubilation: Handel & Haydn

Date:  Sunday 22 May 2022, 3pm
Venue:  Sydney Town Hall

 

 

Image credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
 

The last time Sydney Philharmonia's Festival Chorus performed was in September 2019. Now, as they come together for the first time in nearly two years, they're putting the “festive” back into Festival with a magnificent and uplifting program guaranteed to put a smile on every face.

 

Organist David Drury. Image Credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

                 

There’s nothing restrained about this program. Handel’s four Coronation Anthems, commissioned personally by George II, are in the grand ceremonial style – majestic music capturing all the pomp and splendour of the occasion. Haydn’s Nelson Mass is remarkable for its boldness and rich dramatic power. And Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Festival Chorus bring the celebratory spirit into the present with three new orchestral interludes commissioned from emerging Sydney composers. Sublime!

PROGRAM

George Frideric HANDEL The King Shall Rejoice
Tomas PARRISH-CHYNOWETH The Fractured Crown*
HANDEL Zadok the Priest
Aidan Charles ROSA Ineffable*
HANDEL Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened
Aija DRAGUNS Lavender Paper Cranes*
HANDEL My Heart is Inditing
Joseph HAYDN Missa in angustiis, Hob.XXII:11 (Nelson Mass)
* Premiere

This performance will run for approximately 2 hours, including one 20-minute interval.

 

Top: Penelope Mills, soprano; Russell Harcourt, countertenor
Below: Louis Hurley, tenor; Christopher Richardson, bass-baritone.
Image Credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

 

ARTISTS

Brett Weymark conductor
Penelope Mills soprano
Russell Harcourt countertenor
Louis Hurley tenor
Christopher Richardson bass-baritone
Festival Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra

 

TICKETS

Premium $112 | A $101 | B $79 | C $58
Concessions: Premium $101 | A $90| B $71 | C $52
A booking fee of $8.50 per transaction applies.

 

Reviews: 

Will be provided as available. 

Resources:

2022 Season Together Again. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Artistic & Music Director Brett Weymark, OAM

Jubilation: Handel & Bach. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.  (Available on access, 8 May 2022.)

 

BOOK TICKETS HERE

COVID-19 SAFETY

• All SPC singers, musicians and staff are double vaccinated.
• Audiences will be required to wear masks throughout the performance. If this changes we will inform patrons as soon as possible.
• Hand sanitiser will be available.
• A digital program book will be available on this page a week prior to the concert. A limited number of printed program books will be available for $5 each at the concert.

DETAILS ABOUT OUR COVID SAFE PLAN

(c) 8 May 2022.  Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony

Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Dates:  

Thursday 22 Sept 2016, 8pm
Saturday 24 Sept 2016, 2pm

Venue: 

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House

 

Program:

1. Richard Wagner - 'Siegfried's Rhine Journey' from the opera Götterdämmerung

2. Carl Vine - Wonders (world premiere) 

3. Ralph Vaughan Williams - A Sea Symphony, 

The Four Movements: 

       I.     A Song for All Seas, All Ships 

      II.   On the Beach at Night Alone 

      III.  Scherzo: The Waves 

      IV.   The Explorers


Artists:

Brett Weymark  Conductor
Penelope Mills  Soprano
Christopher Hillier  Baritone
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Symphony Chorus & Festival Chorus 
Sydney Youth Orchestra


A snippet  of our general rehearsal with Maestro Brett Weymark. Apology for the abrupt end of the recording. 



A pre-concert talk by Carl Vine and English composer Christopher Gordon will be held prior to the performance on Thursday 22nd September 7:15pm-7.45pm. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House Northern Foyer. 

About the Music:

A Sea Symphony is a choral symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, written between 1903 and 1909. Vaughan Williams's first and longest symphony, it was first performed at the Leeds Festival in 1910, with the composer conducting. It marked the composer's emergence as one of the most ditinctive musical personalities of the 20th century. The symphony's maturity belies the composer's relative youth when it was written (he was 30 when he first began sketching it). 

                                  Image Credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

 

One of the first symphonies in which a choir is used throughout the work and is an integral part of the musical texture, A Sea Symphony helped set the stage for a new era of symphonic and choral music in England during the first half of the 20th century. The work is sometimes referred to as the Symphony No. 1. The sound of the sea permeates the entire work from the sailors' sea shanties "Song for all Seas, all Ships", to the tranquillity of "On the beach at night, alone", and the exulting dramatic waves in "The Waves", and the words the choir sings are by the American poet Walt Whitman.