Showing posts with label St John Passion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St John Passion. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Bach's St John Passion

See what we are performing this year...
Are you passionate about singing? Sing with us...
Read more about City Choir Dunedin...
Invest in the future of City Choir Dunedin...
Get in touch, we would love to hear from you...

Bach's St John Passion
Sunday 24 March, 4:00 pm
Dunedin Town Hall

Conductor: David Burchell
Soloists: Iain Tetley (Evangelist), Patrick Shanahan (Christ), Caroline Burchell, Maaike Christie-Beekman, Lila Crichton, James Harrison (Pilate)
Dunedin Symphony Orchestra
Presented by City Choir Dunedin

Fourteen years ago, in March 2010, City Choir Dunedin sang J.S. Bach’s St John Passion and is about to sing it again, 300 years after it was first performed. The work has been widely appreciated and performed worldwide over the centuries and has become a significant and enduring piece in the choral and classical music repertoire. 

St John Passion is a haunting and dramatic musical depiction of the Easter story and has been revered since it was first performed in 1724. Under the baton of conductor David Burchell, the Choir is accompanied by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra and will showcase six wonderful soloists. 

A narrator, the Evangelist, has a key role throughout the Passion, with the choir taking various roles of the people, the Jews, and the crowd. 

The action is heightened by some of the most emotionally intense arias every composed. Exquisite chorales of radiant music are scattered throughout, thus giving rise to rich contrasts and expressive musical and spiritual power. 

This promises to be a performance of profound beauty that will linger in your heart long after the final note was heard.


Tickets are also available from the Regent Theatre box office or by phone: 0800 111 999

Friday, April 9, 2010

Accolades for St John Passion

This letter from Dr David Galloway (Dr Patricia Payne, the opera singer’s husband) was published in the ODT this morning:

Monday 29 March, 2010

Editor Otago Daily Times

Yesterday I attended Bach’s St John Passion by the City of Dunedin Choir and the Southern Sinfonia in the Town Hall. To hear this wonderfully dramatic work sung with such warmth and conviction (and dare I say passion) in German, the language of its composition, was a treat indeed. The performance easily bears comparison with any British or European live performances of the work that I have heard. Besides the splendid contributions of conductor, soloists, choir and orchestra, the continuo players (organ, cello and flute) sensitively and deftly provided accompaniments to the several solo arias, adding a further dimension of great subtlety and beauty to the whole work. It was a glorious start to Holy Week. Warmest congratulations to the City of Dunedin Choir and their supporters, for allowing us to share in this outstanding musical event. More please!

David Galloway (Opoho)