‘Elijah’ To Be Performed by

Concert Chorus & Symphony Orchestra

DANBURY — The Danbury Music Centre invites the public to a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s masterpiece, Elijah.

The 100-voice Danbury Concert Chorus and the 50-piece Danbury Symphony Orchestra, all under the direction of Richard Price, music director and conductor, will perform the oratorio on Saturday, May 12, at 8 pm, at St James Episcopal Church, 25 West Street.

Second in popularity only to Handel’s Messiah, Elijah was completed in the year before Mendelssohn died (1846) for the Birmingham Festival in England. It depicts events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from books 1 and 2 of Kings in the Old Testament.

Many of the choruses, recitatives, and arias of Elijah are modeled after works of Handel and Bach, Baroque masters who lived a century earlier than Mendelssohn and who were held in the highest regard by him. Although Elijah may have been modeled after music from the Baroque era, Mendelssohn composed it just as the Classical period was ending and the Romantic period was beginning.  The long lasting popularity of Elijah may stem, in part, from Mendelssohn’s clever ability to successfully meld all three styles — Baroque, Classical and Romantic — into one piece.

Mendelssohn originally composed the oratorio in German using dramatic text from scenes in the Old Testament.  However, upon being commissioned by the Birmingham Festival to write an oratorio, he translated the German, Elias, into the English, Elijah.  In German speaking countries today, it is still performed in its original German. The Danbury performance will be in English.

Joining the chorus and orchestra will be Elisabeth Baer, soprano, singing the roles of the Widow and an Angel; Laura Vlasek Nolen, mezzo-soprano, who will sing the roles of Queen Jezebel and an Angel; tenor Christopher Pfund, singing the roles of Obadiah and Ahab; and Michael Riley, bass, singing the role of Elijah. Eleven year old Libai H. F. Jordan will sing the role of the youth.

Admission is free, but donations at the door will be are gratefully accepted.

For additional information, call the Danbury Music Centre at 748-1716.