tvc.dsj.org | November 20, 2018
COMMUNITY
9
San Jose Symphonic Choir Season Opener
San Jose Symphonic Choir, con-
ducted by Music Director Leroy
Kromm, will present its first concert
of the 2018-2019 season on Decem-
ber 1, at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal
Churc h, 13601 Saratoga Avenue,
Saratoga, at 7:30 p.m.
The perfor ma nce w ill feat ure
Giacomo Puccini’s exquisite Messa di
Gloria; other music on the program
includes two festive Vivaldi con-
certi for double solo instruments,
a nd a su ite f rom Tc ha i kovsk y ’s
ballet, Swan Lake. The choir will
b e acc ompa n ie d by Nova Vi st a
Symphony. Tickets are: General,
$30 in advance, $35 at t he door,
Seniors/Students/Military $25 in
advance, $30 at the door, and are
ava i lable t h roug h Brow n Pap er
Tickets. Visit the Choir’s website,
www.sanjosesymphon icchoir.org
for a direct link to tickets and more
information.
One usually does not think of
sacred music when the works of
Puccini are discussed. In fact, few
people even realize that he wrote
any sacred music, let alone a com-
plete mass, since he is known today
as an opera composer, renowned
particularly for La Bohème, Tosca,
and Madama Butterfly. But he did;
Puccini was the fourth generation of
a family of church musicians from
Lucca in northern Italy, and was des-
tined to become the town organist
and chorus master at the cathedral
of San Paolino, like his forefathers.
In 1876, during his studies at the
Lucca Institute Musicale, he walked
twent y miles from Lucca to Pisa
and back to hear a performance
of Verdi’s Aida. This performance
changed his life: he decided to pur-
sue a career in the theatre rather
than the church. Puccini spoke of
that fateful performance of Verdi’s
Aida later in life when he said, “I felt
that a musical window had opened
for me.”
Shortly thereafter, he composed
the Messa di Gloria as his gradua-
tion piece. Though it was performed
to great success in 1880, praised by
both critics and public alike, Puccini
filed the piece away and it was not
heard again in his lifetime. Musi-
cologists believe Puccini intended
it to be a farewell to his association
with sacred music.
In 1951, Father Dante del Fioren-
tino, an émigré Italian priest living
in New York, who had known Puc-
cini when he was a young curate,
was visiting Lucca to collect mate-
rial for a biography of the composer.
He came upon a copy of the mass
and on his return home organized
the first American performance of
it in Chicago in 1952, seventy-two
years after its premiere in Lucca.
Since its publication in 1951 it has
become a firmly established part
of the choral repertoire. The Messa
di Gloria is a delightful work, full
of Puccini’s beautiful melodies and
operatic flourishes, clearly influ-
enced by Puccini’s hero, Verdi, and
foreshadowing his great successes
to come.
Antonio Vivaldi, the “Red Priest”
of Ven ice, was a prom i nent a nd
prol i f ic Ita l ia n composer of t he
late Baroque; over 500 concerti are
at tributed to h im. At t he age of
25 he became the music teacher at
an all-girls orphanage school, the
Ospedale della Pièta. It was his job
to teach the girls to play music, as
well as to write concerti to showcase
their talents. The two concerti on the
program each feature two soloists:
one piece written for two violins,
and the other for two trumpets.
The ballet Swan Lake, with music
by Pyotr IllyichTchaikovsky, was
considered a failure at its premiere
i n 1877 – it was “too noisy, too
Wagnerian, too symphonic - alto-
get her un memorable”, according
to the critics of the day. Despite its
initial failure, the story of Odette, a
princess turned into a swan by an
evil sorcerer’s curse, is now one of
the most popular of all ballets, and
has inspired or provided scores for
both live action and animated mov-
ies, theatrical productions, video
games, and more. The Suite contains
it s mo st b eaut i f u l a nd fa m i l ia r
melodies.
For more information please visit,
www.sanjosesymphonicchoir.org.
leroy kromm, music director
presents
Messa di Gloria
by Giacomo Puccini
and other works
by vivaldi and tchaikovsky
with Nova Vista Symphony
saturday, december 1 · 7:30 pm
saint andrew’s episcopal church
13601 Saratoga Avenue, Saratoga, CA 95070
General $30 in advance, $35 at the door;
Senior/Students/Military $25 in advance, $30 at the door
Tickets available through our website, www.sanjosesymphonicchoir.org,
and on Brown Paper Tickets at https://sjscpuccini.brownpapertickets.com.
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.