Stabat Mater

VERDI
Messa Solenne (Messa di Gloria)

ROSSINI
Stabat Mater

When the sacred becomes opera.

Two Italian masters, two sacred works where faith is expressed with the power of operatic theatre. Rossini’s Stabat Mater is a flamboyant prayer, intensely operatic, which transforms spiritual sorrow into a true drama of voices, carried by soprano Joyce El-Khoury.

As a counterpart, Verdi’s Messa solenne: an extremely rare early work of which only the Kyrie and the Gloria survive, already revealing the dramatic impetus of the composer of Nabucco and Otello.

At their helm, Speranza Scappucci, an Italian conductor of affirmed lyricism, leads Insula orchestra and accentus—a period-instrument orchestra and a choir of excellence—for an evening of rare intensity.

This concert is performed on period instruments.