May Festival 2008 Season

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MAY FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT CONCERT:
VERDI: La Forza del Destino
(The Force of Destiny)
Sung in Italian with Englishsupertitles

May 16 8:00 PM
Music Hall

Pre-Concert Recital
7 PM Music Hall
Ellie Dehn, soprano

Set across the magnificent backdrop of mid-18th century Spain, Verdi’s sweeping masterpiece finds the beautiful Leonora agreeing to elope with Don Alvaro. Her father, the Marquis, having heard noises from Leonora’s room, runs to protect her, sword drawn. Alvaro throws his pistol to the floor as a sign of surrender, but the pistol accidentally goes off, fatally wounding the Marquis.
The Force of Destiny is set into motion.

Leonora, separated from Alvaro while fleeing from the scene of her father’s death, goes to a monastery to spend the rest of her life in repentance. Her brother, Don Carlo, vows revenge on the lovers. And when the three eventually cross paths, it is for one final, fatal time.

Experience all of the drama, and find out how the story ends, during the May Festival premiere concert presentation of
La Forza del Destino.

May Festival opening night sponsored by: Harry and Linda Fath

May Festival Repertoire

Sample Clips - Listen!

For more information, please call (513) 381-3300.

Map and Directions


 

MAY FESTIVAL PRESENTS:
ERIC ZEISL: Requiem Ebraico
Sung in English
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No.9
Sung in German with English supertitles

May 17 8:00 PM
Music Hall

Pre-Concert Dinner
5:45 - 7:30 Corbett Tower, Music Hall

Pre-Concert Recital
7 PM Music Hall
John Aler, tenor

Beethoven’s masterful celebration of universal brotherhood, the Symphony No. 9, is being given a record 20th May Festival performance since its debut on the first Festival in 1873. The Symphony, whose remarkable “Ode to Joy” will close this evening’s performance, is paired with a poignant work by a composer who is new to the Festival.

Eric Zeisl, who fled from Austria during the time of the Holocaust, is possibly best known for his work in Hollywood, including scores for 20 films such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Lassie Come Home and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man. In a departure from his movie career, he composed the hauntingly beautiful Requiem Ebraico in memory of his father, who died in the concentration camp at Treblinka, and in honor of the countless other victims of the Holocaust.

The text, quoted from the 92nd Psalm, is the basis for the Jewish Sabbath celebration but also reflects Zeisl’s view that “...there is very much in the 92nd Psalm that suits the occasion.... With a heart full of tears they [the Jews] nevertheless hold on to God and do not cease to thank Him and do not cease to hope....”

This May Festival performance is sponsord by: Chavez Properties

May Festival Repertoire

Sample Clips - Listen!

Dinner, May 17 2008 5:45pm

Zeisl; Requiem Ebraico / Beethoven; Sym. No. 9 - 8pm

For more information, please call (513) 381-3300.

Map and Directions


MAY FESTIVAL SPECIAL CONCERT:
RACHMANINOFF: Excerpts from Vespers
SCARLATTI: Exultate Deo
DES PREZ: El Grillo
PALESTRINA: Sicut Cervus
FAURÉ: Cantique de Jean Racine
WILLIAM DUCKWORTH: Hebrew Children
SCHUBERT: Des Tages Weihe
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: The Turtle Dove
THOMPSON: The Last Words of David
arr. DAWSON: Ezekiel Saw the Wheel

May 18 8:00 PM
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption

The Festival’s annual sojourn to the exquisite Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption is this year taken in celebration of
James Bagwell’s tenth anniversary as director of the May Festival Youth Chorus. The works he has selected represent highlights from his time with the group, which he has shaped into an acclaimed ensemble that, just last season, was featured on NPR’s From the Top, a program that showcases the best of the best of today’s young performers.

The May Festival Chorus will perform one of the most sublime works in all of choral literature, Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. This socalled All-Night Vigil Service evokes the Death and Resurrection of Christ through its symbolic descent into darkness and return to light. The Vespers remained among Rachmaninoff’s favorite compositions, so much so that he requested that the work’s “Nunc dimittis” be sung at his funeral.

The May Festival Youth Chorus is proudly sponsored by Scripps Howard Foundation.

May Festival Repertoire

Sample Clips - Listen!

For more information, please call (513) 381-3300.

Map and Directions


Weekend 2

MAY FESTIVAL PRESENTS:
FAURÉ: Requiem
Sung in Latin with English supertitles
VIVALDI: Gloria
Sung in Latin with English supertitles
BACH: Cantata No.191
(Gloria in excelsis Deo)
Sung in Latin with English supertitles

May 23 8:00 PM
Music Hall

Pre-Concert Dinner
5:45 - 7:30 Corbett Tower, Music Hall

Pre-Concert Recital
7 PM Music Hall
Donnie Ray Albert, baritone

Fauré’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria are two of the best loved works of the choral literature — for good reason. Each is strikingly
beautiful in its own way. Fauré’s sublime Requiem, intimate in scale and consoling in content, gracefully and gently expresses
human grief, as Fauré himself said, “[My Requiem] is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal
rest.” Vivaldi’s Gloria, with its awe-inspiring waves of musical notes, its energy and rhythmic drive, and its achingly beautiful “Et in Terra Pax,” compellingly communicate the work’s message of spiritual joy.

Bach’s Cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo, which will receive its May Festival premiere at this concert, is listed among the composer’s cantatas for the Christmas season. The Cantata’s music, borrowed from movements of Bach’s celebrated B Minor Mass, vividly communicates the familiar message: “Glory be to God on high, and on Earth peace to men of good will.”

A memorable evening of exquisite and spiritual music awaits! 

This May Festival performance is sponsored by: Neyer Holdings Corporation

May Festival Repertoire

Sample Clips - Listen!

Dinner, May 23 2008 5:45pm

Vivaldi: Gloria/Faure: Requiem 8pm

For more information, please call (513) 381-3300.

Map and Directions


MAY FESTIVAL 2008 FINALE:
BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette
Sung in French with English supertitles
with projected artwork from around the world,
curated by the Cincinnati Art Museum

May 24 8:00 PM
Music Hall

Pre-Concert Dinner
5:45 - 7:30 Corbett Tower, Music Hall

Pre-Concert Recital
7 PM Music Hall
Catherine Keen, mezzo-soprano

Great music and great art combine for this multimedia presentation of one of the most romantic, and tragic, stories in the English language — .

With extraordinary beauty, Berlioz’s self-titled “dramatic symphony” tells us in music and words of the feud between the Montagues and Capulets, the elation and melancholy of the young lovers’ allconsuming passion, the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and the eventual reconciliation of the families.

Berlioz’s breathtaking music will unite with the visual, as artists’ depictions of themes represented in the music are projected above the stage, thanks in part to the Cincinnati Art Museum.

The May Festival Finale is sponsored by: Macy's Foundation

May Festival Repertoire

Sample Clips - Listen!

Dinner, May 24 2008 5:45pm

Berlioz: Romeo et Juliette 8pm

For more information, please call (513) 381-3300.

Map and Directions

Supertitles made possible by a grant from The Corbett Foundation

 

 
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