Music Hall 8 
ZEMLINSKY Psalm 23 The Good Shepherd
ZEMLINSKY Psalm 13
MOZART Requiem KV 626
James Conlon conducting
May Festival Chorus, Robert Porco, Director
May Festival Youth Chorus, James Bagwell, Director
Janai Brugger, soprano
Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano
Richard Croft, tenor
Jordan Bisch, bass
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
The story behind the Mozart Requiem has long been shrouded in mystery, as was famously dramatized in the film and play Amadeus. The Requiem was commissioned by a stranger who refused to identify himself. Mozart accepted the commission but, in failing health, he came to believe that he was being poisoned and that the anonymous patron was behind it. He felt he was, in effect, composing music for his own funeral. Although Mozart died before finishing his final masterpiece, its beauty and emotional depth endure for audiences today.
Two inspiring late-Romantic Psalm settings by exiled Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky complete this radiant program. Psalm 23, perhaps the best known of the Psalms, is joyful in its setting of the comforting pastoral text, while Psalm 13 (How long will you forget me?) offers a grandiose and colorful picture of salvation. Zemlinsky fled from Germany in 1933 and Psalm 13 expresses his sense of insecurity in the troubled world around him.
Pre-Concert Recital 7 pm Music Hall
Janai Brugger, soprano
Renate Rohlfing piano
Free to concert ticketholders
Concert Sponsors:
Thompson Hine LLP
Fort Washington
Investment Advisors
Music Hall 8 pm
BRITTEN War Requiem
James Conlon conducting
May Festival Chorus, Robert Porco, Director
Cincinnati Children's Choir, Robin Lana, Artistic Director
Christine Brewer, soprano
Alek Shrader, tenor
Phillip Addis, baritone
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Universally recognized as one of the century’s choral masterpieces, the War Requiem delivers Britten’s profound call for peace. The world was a volatile place when the work was premiered in 1962, at the reconsecration of England’s Coventry Cathedral, which had been destroyed in WWII bombings. The Berlin Wall had just been built, the Cuban missile crisis loomed, and peace was as threatened as it was during WWII.
Fifty years later this monumental work remains profound and powerful as it weaves together the traditional Requiem text with anti-war poetry by WWI soldier Wilfred Owen, who died in the trenches one week before the end of the War. This year marks the centennial of Benjamin Britten’s birth.
Pre-Concert Recital 7 pm Music Hall
Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano
Renate Rohlfing piano
Free to concert ticketholders
Pre-Concert Buffet Dinner
5:45-7 pm Music Hall's Corbett Tower
Concert Sponsors:
Bartlett & Co.
Clark Schaefer Hackett
The May Festival Youth Chorus is proudly sponsored by SCRIPPS HOWARD FOUNDATION
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption 8 pm
May Festival Youth Chorus:
BYRD Sing Joyfully
WEELKES Hosanna to the Son of David
BRITTEN Te Deum in C
May Festival Chorus:
GORECKI Totus Tuus
PÄRT Zwei slawische Psalmen Psalms 117 & 131
GJEILO Ubi Caritas
BRITTEN Rosa Mystica
LAURIDSEN Ave Maria
MACMILLAN Data est mihi omnis potestas
Robert Porco conducting
James Bagwell conducting
May Festival Chamber Choir, Robert Porco, Director
May Festival Youth Chorus, James Bagwell, Director
Members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
The Britten Centennial celebration continues in the remarkable Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, as two works by Benjamin Britten are performed in this most beautiful of religious settings.
The May Festival Youth Chorus begins the evening with three works that span the centuries and showcase the talent of these committed high school students. Britten’s Te Deum in C provides drama and energy to this praise-filled traditional text.
The May Festival Chamber Choir presents a diverse sound palate of beautifully contemplative
a cappella works by well-known international
20th-century choral composers. Each composition offers a striking and unique setting of Biblical verses or religious prayers. Britten’s Rosa Mystica is an exquisite setting of a poem that speaks of Mary as
the “Mystical Rose.”
Concert Sponsors:
Neyer Holdings Corporation
Clark-Theders
Insurance Agency
Music Hall 8 pm
STRAVINSKY Oedipus Rex
DEBUSSY La damoiselle élue (The Blessed Damozel)
DEBUSSY Sirènes from Nocturnes
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2
James Conlon conducting
May Festival Chorus, Robert Porco, Director
Tracy Cox, soprano
Ronnita Nicole Miller, mezzo-soprano
Rodrick Dixon, tenor
Brian Michael Moore, tenor
Donnie Ray Albert, baritone
Richard Bernstein, bass-baritone
Joneal Joplin, narrator
Ed Stern, stage director
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex delves into Sophocles’ timeless Greek tragedy, one of the plays that Stravinsky loved most in his youth. Premiered in 1927, the work takes a more classical approach for this most dramatic story, which explores Oedipus’ fateful tale of self-discovery.
Mythical love stories weave through the sensuous, evocative music of Debussy and Ravel—from the tale of The Blessed Damozel, in which the damsel waits for her lover’s spirit to join her in the heavens, to the Sirens who sing their mysterious song as they tempt the sailors on the moonlit sea, to Ravel’s lush depiction of the love story between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé.
Be prepared to let your imagination soar.
Pre-Concert Recital 7 pm Music Hall
Donnie Ray Albert, baritone
Michael Chertock, piano
Free to concert ticketholders
Pre-Concert Buffet Dinner
5:45-7 pm Music Hall's Corbett Tower
Concert Sponsor:
Harry & Linda Fath
Music Hall 8 pm
Grand Opera Choruses and Scenes:
WAGNER Freudig begrussen wir die edle Halle from Act II of Tannhäuser
WAGNER Treulich geführt from Act III of Lohengrin
WAGNER Brünnhilde and Wotan’s Scene from Act III of Die Walküre
WAGNER Wachet auf, es nahet gen den Tag and Finale from Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
VERDI Marcia Triumphal Scene, Ballet Music and Chorus from Act II of Aida
VERDI Gli arredi festivi opening scene and Chorus from Act I of Nabucco
VERDI Va pensiero Hebrew Slaves Chorus from Act III of Nabucco
VERDI Patria oppressa! Scottish Exiles Chorus from Act IV of Macbeth
VERDI Fuoco di gioia! from Act I of Otello
VERDI Si celebri alfine tra canti from Act IV of I vespri siciliani
VERDI O Splendide Feste from Act III Finale of I vespri siciliani
James Conlon conducting
May Festival Chorus, Robert Porco, Director
Christine Goerke, soprano
Alan Held, bass-baritone
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
We celebrate the bicentennial anniversaries of two of the opera world’s giants, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, with spectacular choruses and scenes from their greatest masterpieces. Verdi’s operas are wildly popular due to their theatrical stories and emotional choruses, while Wagner’s “music dramas” feature adventurous stories of epic proportions.
Showcased are selections that put the “grand” in Grand Opera. Hear Verdi’s powerful “Va pensiero,” the tragic “Patria oppressa!” and the majestic Triumphal Scene from Aida. Wagner’s famous Bridal Chorus, the legendary Brünnhilde and Wotan’s scene from Act III of Die Walküre, and the well-known “Wachet auf” and finale from Die Meistersinger will be our grand finale to this inspirational season.
Pre-Concert Recital 7 pm Music Hall
Tracy Cox, soprano
Michael Chertock, piano
Free to concert ticketholders
Pre-Concert Buffet Dinner
5:45-7 pm Music Hall's Corbett Tower
Artists subject to change.
