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May 7, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
COMMUNITY
San Jose Symphonic Choir Collaborates on Special Performance
San Jose Symphonic Choir (SJSC)
will present its final concert of the
2018 - 19 season on May 19, 3 pm, at
the Campbell Heritage Theatre, 1 W.
Campbell Avenue, Campbell.
The concert will feature a first
time collaboration between three lo-
cal groups, and an unusual pairing
of works: a 21 st century opera, and a
rarely performed 19 th century sym-
phony-cantata. Tickets for this event
are: General, $30 in advance, $35 at
the door, Seniors/Students/Military
$25 in advance, $30 at the door, and
are available through the theatre
box office. Visit the Choir’s website,
www.sanjosesymphonicchoir.org for
a direct link to tickets and additional
information.
The SJSC is thrilled to be working
in tandem with Bay Shore Lyric Opera
and Mission Chamber Orchestra, to
produce the West Coast premiere of
Henry Mollicone’s one-act opera La-
dybird: First Lady of the Land. Mr. Mol-
licone, a local composer, and Pullitzer
Prize-winning librettist Sheldon Har-
nick created a fascinating work based
upon events in the life of Lady Bird
Johnson, wife of President Lyndon
B. Johnson. The opera honors Lady
Bird’s contribution to America, as
the woman who stood witness to the
historical magnitude of her husband’s
term as President of the United States,
and rode down bigotry as a daughter
of the South. When LBJ’s 1964 presi-
dential campaign was considered to
be at risk, due to his support of the
Civil Rights Act, Ladybird coura-
geously campaigned for him across
the Southern states on a special train
– the “Ladybird Express” - at times
putting her own life at risk.
Mollicone’s delightful score em-
ploys a variety of styles to create vivid
orchestration, lyrical solos for the
principal roles, and choruses that are
in turn jazzy, jaunty, and exquisitely
melodic. Principal roles will be sung
by company members of Bayshore
Lyric Opera, while SJSC takes to the
opera stage for the first time to sing as
the opera chorus. Mission Chamber
Orchestra, led by Guest Conductor
Ari Bocian, accompanies the action.
Led by SJSC Music Director Le-
roy Kromm, the choir and orchestra
will perform the second work on the
program: Felix Mendelssohn’s Sym-
phony #2, Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise).
Commissioned in 1840 for a festival
celebrating the 400 th anniversary of
Gutenberg’s invention of movable
Ladybird, First Lady
of the Land Symphony #2
“Lobgesang”
an opera in one act,
by Henry Mollicone by Felix Mendelssohn
Mollicone &
Mendelssohn
Sunday, May 19th · 3:00 PM
Campbell Heritage Theatre | 1 W. Campbell Avenue, Campbell CA 95008
BAY SHORE LYRIC OPERA
MISSION CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
SAN JOSE SYMPHONIC CHOIR
General $30 in advance, $35 at the door;
Senior/Students/Military $25 in advance, $30 at the door
Tickets available through Heritage Theatre Box Office,
https://www.ci.campbell.ca.us/353/Heritage-Theatre or 408-866-2700
For more information please contact [email protected], or call 408-995-3318.
San Jose Symphonic Choir is supported, in part, by a
Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San Jose, and by the Peery Fund.
type, Mendelssohn’s symphony was
performed as the final event, bring-
ing the festival to a suitably imposing
conclusion.
The texts of the nine vocal move-
ments, chosen principally from the
Bible, concern the praise of God and
mankind’s progress from darkness
to light, and enlightenment - through
the dissemination of God’s word, its
implied agent being the Gutenberg
Bible, which considerably advanced
the German Reformation and the
spread of literacy.
The outset of the piece is a dramatic
call-and-response between the trom-
bones and full orchestra; the figure
recurs in the opening chorale (“All
that has breath, praise the Lord”).
This opening leads to a highly struc-
tured musical progression, which
accompanies the textual progression
from darkness to light as God’s word
is promulgated. The dramatic peak
of the cantata is the tenor soloist’s
recitative question: “Watchman, is
the night past?”, posed three times.
The answer, given by a soprano solo,
introduces the lifting of the darkness
in the radiant chorus that follows
(“The night is past”). This is followed
by the familiar chorale “Now thank
we all our God”, a culminating fugal
chorus, and a final appearance of the
initial call-and-response trombone
figure, bringing the composition full
circle and reaffirming the unity of
the whole.
The use of the title “cantata” is
a reflection of the influence of J.S.
Bach, and other Baroque compos-
ers, in Mendelssohn’s musical style.
(Mendel ssoh n de eply respec ted
Bach, and was largely responsible
for re-establishing his music in the
19 th century.) The writing is clearly
influenced by Bach’s example in the
layout of recitatives, arias, and cho-
ruses, the fugues of the opening and
closing choruses, and the use of the
chorale (“Now thank we all our God”)
- all quintessential elements of Bach’s
art. The lyrical beauty and drama of
the work, however, are unmistakably
Mendelssohn.
Archbishop Gregory Shares Memories,
asks for Prayers from Atlanta
ATLANTA (CNS) -- As he prepares to leave the archdiocese of Atlanta for
his new assignment in Washington, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory shared the
memories he has made and asked for prayers during an April 11 interview with
the Georgia Bulletin, archdiocesan newspaper. “It seems to me that we here in
Atlanta are in a privileged position. We are experiencing growth and expansion
while many other dioceses are experiencing contraction and realignment of ex-
isting structures,” said the archbishop, who had led the church in Atlanta since
2005. “And we’re building churches and expanding facilities, so we are enjoying
right now certainly a great blessing as the Lord,” he added. In an Atlanta news
conference in early April, the archbishop said he doesn’t think in terms of a legacy.
He said he takes the greatest satisfaction from having come to “know this diocese
well and I think that’s an important accomplishment for any pastor to be able to
say that after a certain number of years, ‘I know, and I love my people.’
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