Events - Autumn Concert 2009
Location: St George's Church, Pinner View, Harrow
Date: Saturday 7th November 2009 at 11:30am
We will be singing some of the most popular arias and choruses from Handel's Messiah, one of the most famous and most enduring of all choral works. Our performance will commence with the Overture, then our tenor soloist (Greg Tassell) will sing Comfort ye my people followed by Ev'ry valley shall be exalted after which the choir will sing And the glory of the Lord. The next soloist will be the soprano (Hilary Musgrave) with the recitatives There were shepherds abiding in the fields...; and lo the angel of the Lord came upon them...; and the Angel said unto them...; and suddenly there was with the Angel ... This will be followed by the choir singing Glory to God.
Pieces fromthe Second Part of the work will be the air sung by our mezzo soloist (Catherine Hopper) He was despised and the choruses Surely he hath borne our griefs, And with His stripes and All we like sheep. We then have the tenor recitative All that see him laugh him to scorn and the chorus He trusted in God. After the tenor recitative Thy rebuke hath broken his heart and the air Behold and see, the soprano then sings the recitative He was cut off followed by the air But thou didst not leave. The choir then sing Lift up your heads which will be followed by the tenor recitative He that dwelleth in heaven and the air Thou shalt break them. Then comes the great Hallelujah chorus.
Excerpts from Part 3 are the wonderful soprano air I know that my redeemer liveth and the chorus Since by man came death. After the mezzo has sung the recitative Then shall be brought to pass, she and the tenor sing O death, where is thy sting. The choir follow with the chorus But thanks be to God. The soprano sings If God be for us who can be against us and then lastly the great work draws to its magisterial end in the final chorus Worthy is the Lamb.
Hilary Musgrave - Soprano
We are delighted that Hilary Musgrave (our Singing for Starters Music Director and long-standing friend of the Choir) has agreed to be our Soprano soloist for the evening. You can read all about Hilary on this website!
Catherine Hopper
Our Mezzo Soprano soloist will be Catherine Hopper. Catherine studied Music at the University of Leeds and the Franz Liszt Hochschule in Weimar, Germany, graduating with First Class Honours. She graduated from the Royal Academy Opera with a DipRAM and the Vice-Principal’s Prize and now studies at the National Opera Studio with Elizabeth Ritchie.
Roles have included Popova in Walton The Bear for Mahogany Opera, Lucretia in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, Ramiro inMozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, Mezzo-Actress in Judith Weir’s Night at the Chinese Opera, Zita in Gianni Schicci and Marta in Iolantha ,conducted by Steuart Bedford (all for RAO), Second Lady in Die Zauberflote at Clonter Opera, Mme. Larina in Eugene Onegin and Mrs. Herring in Albert Herring for British Youth Opera, both directed by Will Kerley and conducted by Peter Robinson.
Greg Tassell - Tenor
Greg Tassell will be our Tenor Soloist for the evening. Greg was a boy chorister at Durham Cathedral until 1990 and subsequently studied at the University of Exeter and the Royal Academy of Music (University of London).
Greg has sung with the English Touring Opera and is currently playing Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld at Kentish Opera.
Join our Mailing List
Enter your name and email address below to be added to our mailing list.