|
|
 |
    
SACRED MUSIC
By John Ardoin
It is appropriate that Andrea Bocelli's concert of sacred arias take place in Rome, for in no other locale will the millennium have such immediate resonance. Rome will be the center of a universal jubilee celebrating the two-thousandth anniversary of Christ's birth. This ancient city, which is older than Christianity itself, has been a seat of power and government for so many centuries that the world has long referred to it as "The Eternal City."
It is a place of the spirit, where the past lives side-by-side with the present -- a panorama of monuments, gardens, and piazzas. Rome is actually a city within a city, the home of two capitals, one secular and one sacred, and a cultural center boasting vast riches in art, history, and architecture. It is also home to a people proud of their heritage and confident in their future.
In this program of sacred arias performed in the venerated Roman church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which is filled with art treasures, Andrea Bocelli reminds us that one of the most eloquent ways mankind has found to praise the Creator and offer thanks for life and the bounty of this earth has been through song. The Church was the cradle of music, and through the ages it has inspired some of the most beautiful melodies ever written. One of the oldest of these is an "Ave Maria" by Giulio Caccini, which Andrea Bocelli performs in a moving new setting by contemporary composer Steven Mercurio.
Caccini was a member of the influential group in Renaissance Florence known as the Camerata, whose experiments in recreating Greek theater around the turn of the 17th century led to the birth of opera. The operatic nature of this sacred recital is further underlined by a vocal arrangement of the famous "Intermezzo" from Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana," using the words "Ave Maria."
Another of the settings of the "Ave Maria" text included in the concert is the renowned version created by French composer Charles Gounod, who turned to the first prelude of Book One of Bach's musical monument "The Well-tempered Clavier." Above the Bach prelude, Gounod added a vocal line of indelible beauty. The last "Ave Maria" in the program is by Schubert and is perhaps the most famous of all.
One of the most treasured arias in religious music has been César Franck's "Panis Angelicus." It is a prayer that recalls the sacraments with which we remember the death of Christ. Beyond this, it is a cantilena of infinite sweetness and serenity.
Top banner photos: Andrea Bocelli, and the tenor with the young singers of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia chorus.
|
|
 |
 |
Bocelli completed a law degree at the University of Pisa before deciding to pursue a career in music. |
 |
 |
|
The choir of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. |
|
 |
|
This program is available on VHS. |
|
 |
