South Florida Classical Review

Arvo Pärt

A French operatic rarity and a late 20th-century setting of the Passion According to St. John await the adventurous listener this week.

Cendrillon, Massenet’s 1899 setting of the Cinderella story, will be presented by the Frost Opera Theater. More opera comique in the vein of Offenbach than romantic music drama like Massenet’s popular Manon and Werther, Cendrillon is a large-scale operatic fantasy. Alan Johnson conducts two performances this week.

The Frost Opera Theater presents Cendrillon 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday at UM Gusman Concert Hall in Coral Gables.  ovationtix.com

___________

Seraphic Fire concludes its “Parables of Passion” series with Arvo Pärt’s Passio. Pärt’s 70-minute 1982 score combines Medieval musical modes and Gregorian chant with the Estonian composer’s trademark style of spiritual minimalism. Scored for choir and chamber quintet (organ, violin, cello, oboe and bassoon), the work uniquely features a quartet of tenor, baritone, alto and soprano in the narrative role of the Evangelist. Beginning Friday, Patrick Dupré Quigley conducts three performances.

Seraphic Fire presents Arvo Pärt’s Passio 7:30 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church in Coral Gables, Saturday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale and 4 p.m. Sunday at Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church in Naples. seraphicfire.org

Posted in Uncategorized

Leave a Comment