Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui | Rossini's Stabat Mater

Description

PROGRAMME

Villa-Lobos

Chôros No. 10 (“Rasga o coração”)

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)    

Overture to L’italiana in Algeri

Stabat Mater

PERFORMERS

The Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra

Music Director:

Jerome Hoberman 

Soloists:

Vivian Yau, soprano            

Samantha Chong, Mezzo-soprano    

Henry Ngan, tenor            

Caleb Woo, bass

BACH CHOIR & ORCHESTRA CELEBRATE ROSSINI

Few composers were as famous during their lifetimes as Gioachino Rossini. Yet few who were that famous are as unappreciated as he is today – known mainly for a single comic opera, The Barber of Seville.

The Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra focus their attention on this much-misunderstood master on Monday evening, 1st December, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on the Tsim Sha Tsui harborfront, with a performance of Rossini’s masterpiece, Stabat Mater.

Rossini’s cultural reach extended beyond Europe even to the Americas. In Brazil this is apparent in its Italian-opera-inspired national anthem. The diverse concert program recognizes that influence with a performance of Chôros No. 10 by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, which incorporates a well-known Brazilian popular song, Rasga o coração [Tear Out My Heart].

The concert opens with a second work by Rossini, the Overture to his comic opera L’italiana in Algeri [The Italian Woman in Algiers], which reflects surprisingly cosmopolitan European-Asian relations in Rossini’s time, to which he contributed greatly, and which Hong Kong itself represents.

Featured soloists are soprano Vivian Yau, mezzo-soprano Samantha Chong, tenor Henry Ngan, and baritone Caleb Woo. Music Director Jerome Hoberman conducts.