The Pilgrim Festival Chorus continues its 2009-2010 season with a performance of George Frideric Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 11, at the Church of the Pilgrimage in Town Square. PFC Music Director William Richter will conduct the chorus, soloists and orchestra.
Numbering more than 80 members, PFC has been rehearsing this complex oratorio since early January.
“It’s natural in the progression of repertoire for a chorus to perform Judas Maccabaeus once they’ve taken on Handel’s Messiah,” Richter said. “The timing is right. This great work presents a level of difficulty and challenge well suited to our current range of voices.”
This three-act dramatic work is similar to an opera but performed as a concert, with prominent use of choral composition. Set to musical accompaniment by an 18-piece baroque-style orchestra of strings, woodwinds and timpani, the performance will feature Elizabeth Chapman Reilly, the PFC’s accompanist, on the harpsichord.
For many members of the PFC, this will be their first experience singing the major work.
“We’ve met the challenge of some diverse selections in our last few concerts,” Richter said. “This is stylistically different from other recent works we’ve tackled. In this piece the challenge will be in staying true to the baroque style intended by Handel. The audience will enjoy its dramatic range of emotion, from mournful to joyous, punctuated by soaring vocals by our talented soloists.”
Written in only 32 days in 1746, Judas Maccabaeus is renowned as one of the most widely recognized English oratorios written by G. F. Handel, shadowed only by his earlier epic work Messiah. The piece was commissioned by Frederic, Prince of Wales, in celebration of the battle of Culloden in Scotland. The composition examines the exploits of the first book of Maccabees and the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The cast of characters will be performed by local vocal soloists.
Ben Mafera of Hull will sing the tenor part of Judas Maccabaeus, Leslie Leedberg of Southborough performs as the soprano Israelitish woman, and Terry Runnels of Plymouth serves as bass soloist in the role of Simon.
Anne Katherine Smith of Duxbury solos as the alto Israelitish woman, and Jonathan Richter of Plymouth will perform as the Israelitish man.
Containing an impressive 68 choruses, duets, airs, arias and recitatives, the work closes with “Hallelujah” in the composer’s customary triumphant style. In 1884, Edmond Louis Budry scribed new lyrics to the recognizable movement, “See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes,” now the popular hymn, “Thine Be the Glory.”
