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Handel’s Messiah
Worcester Chorus: featuring guest soloists Elisabeth Turchi, Soprano, Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Mezzo, Matthew DiBattista, Tenor, Sumner Thompson, Baritone; Festival Orchestra; Andrew Clark, Music Director
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Mechanics Hall - 8:00 P. M.
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Overview
As one of Worcester’s most cherished holiday traditions, Handel’s Messiah has captivated and enthralled audiences for generations. Celebrate the season with the dramatic and timeless Messiah as the Worcester Chorus offers its 109th annual performance in Mechanics Hall.
"Somewhere in the world on any give day, an audience is hearing Georg Frideric Handel's Messiah, perhaps the most universally loved composition for chorus and orchestra ever written. In Europe, one is more likely to hear this oratorio in the Spring, during the Lenten season leading to Easter. Handel himself conducted the premiere in April and usually presented the work at that time of year. In North America, however, ensembles most often present Messiah during the Advent and Christmas season. Our performance features selections appropriate to this holiday season, with themes of expectation, celebration, good will and reconciliation." - Andrew Clark, Music Director, Worcester Chorus
"Another standing, stomping, cheering ovation by a capacity audience at Mechanics Hall.” – Worcester Telegram
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Program
Performing with The Worcester Chorus will be Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Mezzo Elisabeth Turchi,Soprano
Matthew DiBattista, Tenor Sumner Thompson, Baritone
About the Artists
Lyric coloratura soprano, Elisabeth Turchi, is rapidly emerging as an exciting new artist in the opera world. An audience favorite in Europe and the United States, Ms. Turchi is hailed for her passion and artistry in bringing music's most beautiful and challenging works to life. Ms. Turchi most recently performed Gabriel in Haydn's Die Schöpfung at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna under the direction of two-time Grammy award winner Robert Page. After returning from Europe, Ms. Turchi performed as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Mass in C Minor to standing ovations at the Festival 2008 Celebration Series at the H. Ric Luhrs Performing Arts Center in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
The 2008 and 2009 season will feature Ms. Turchi in selections from Rigoletto and Die Fledermaus for Annapolis Opera’s final concert of the season, Romantic Divas and Amorous Dons. She will also be the featured soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Masterworks Chorale in Shepherdstown, Mozart’s Requiem with Hagerstown Choral Arts, and Messiah with the Worcester Chorus in Mechanics Hall.
Past highlights include her overseas debut in Rome with the role of Alice in Falstaff, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Harrisburg Opera, Cio-Cio San's Cousin in Madama Butterfly with the Pittsburgh Opera, and Madame Silverklang in The Impresario. Ms. Turchi has also performed with New York City's Gotham Chamber Opera in Les Larmes du Couteau, Dido and Aeneas and Les Malheurs d'Orphee.
Ms. Turchi has also studied in Italy with The International Institute of Vocal Arts, The International Lyric Academy of Rome, and The Ezio Pinza Council of American Singers of Opera. Highlights from these programs include working with the delightful Giuseppe Taddei and the late Fedora Barbiere.
Ms. Turchi holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon University and her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Shenandoah University. She is featured on the recording of Haydn's Die Schöpfung at the Liszt Academy in Budapest by CMI Records.
Baritone Sumner Thompson, makes his debut with Intermezzo as the Ferryman in Benjamin Britten's religious parable Curlew River. Hailed as "the real thing" (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and praised for his "elegant style" (Boston Globe), baritone Sumner Thompson continues to be lauded by audiences and music cognoscenti alike. His impeccable technique, beautiful sound and elegant musicianship are quickly making him one of the most sought after young baritones in this country and abroad.
Recent concert performances included a return to the Boston Early Music Festival in concert with the King's Noyse; Händel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Masterwork Chorus, Finzi's In terra pax with the National Symphony and the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, as Pilate in a staged version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Apollo's Fire, Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem with the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, La Discorde in Charpentier's Les Arts Florissants with the Camerata Pacifica, Bach's St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion in Bloomington, IN under the direction of Paul Hillier, Schaunard in a concert version of La Bohème with the Newton Symphony Orchestra, and as Zebul in Händel's Jephtha with NYS Baroque in Ithaca, NY.A noted recitalist, Mr. Thompson has performed in Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Regensburg, and at London's famed Wigmore Hall with the late Leonard Hokanson, Alison d'Amato, and Tobias Hartlieb. As a favorite in top tier early music circles, he has appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival as the Satir in their recent production of Conradi's Ariadne and in concerts with the Festival Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Palatino. He has also appeared at guest artist at the San Francisco, Regensburg, and Bloomington Early Music Festivals.
Among his many awards and distinctions, Mr. Thompson is the winner of the 1995 Atlanta Pro-Mozart Society Competition, the Willi Apel Scholarship at Indiana University in 1997, and the 1999 Indiana University Early Music Institute Concerto Competition, for which he was the only singer to ever be accorded this honor. In 2003, Mr. Thompson placed as a semi-finalist in the prestigious Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He was also twice a semi-finalist in the New York Oratorio Society Competition. Sumner Thompson records for the harmonia mundi usa, Dorian and Arsis labels. More on the Intermezzo-Opera.org web site.
Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Mezzo, a native of Dallas, Texas, has been called "an intense interpreter; an extremely communicative singer whose artistic talent goes beyond the use of her voice." She is a versatile performer who appears in a variety of repertoire on the concert, opera and recital stages and has been recognized by audiences, critics and colleagues as having a rich voice with unusual size, timbre and an extraordinary range. With a voice ideally suited to the German romantic repertoire, she has been praised for her interpretations of Wagner, Mahler and Strauss. The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini wrote that she sang with a "dark-hued sound and elegance," and the Wall Street Journal called her "the most finished artist, sensitive to every nuance of the text."
Gigi Mitchell-Velasco graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with a degree in Flute. While at the Institute, her voice made quite an impression and she was urged to take up vocal study. She was ultimately accepted into the Curtis Opera Department. Miss Mitchell-Velasco was then offered a double major of flute and voice, but chose instead to focus on the flute, which she has been playing since childhood. Upon graduating from Curtis, she went to the Opera Company of Boston as principal flutist, a position she held for eight years. During this time, she also worked with the London Symphony's principal flutist, Peter Lloyd. However, upon encouragement from renowned mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, Miss Mitchell-Velasco began singing once again. After studying for only a few months, she participated in the Rosa Ponselle International Voice Competition and placed in the top 25 singers winning the Silver Rose Award. She was also a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions and was in the Santa Fe Opera Artist Apprentice Program. She studied with Mignon Dunn and subsequently worked extensively with Christa Ludwig who encouraged her greatly. Miss Ludwig also arranged for Miss Mitchell-Velasco to sing for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf who was most complimentary. In May 1993, she was awarded the first Robert Lauch Memorial Grant by the Wagner Society of New York, a grant she was again awarded in 1996, and in 1999 she received another grant from them. In 1997 she won the American Wagner Association Award in the Liederkranz Competition for Wagnerian Voice. In 1966 she won First Prize in the Annamaria Saritelli-diPanni Bel Canto Award, and in 2001 received a Grant from the Bel Canto Scholarship Foundation. She was also a European finalist of the Pavarotti International Voice Competition and a finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions. Miss Mitchell-Velasco has also worked as a chamber musician, teacher, coach and pianist-accompanist. Follow link to her web site for extended biography.
Critically acclaimed tenor Matthew DiBattista has an exciting and successful carrier in the opera and concert worlds. With a vibrant sound and an excellent dramatic sense, he frequently performs throughout the United States and made his European debut as soloist in the Hundred Days Festival in Lisbon, Portugal. This festival included Mr. DiBattista as soloist in Mozart's Requiem and the premiere of Gerhard Samuel's Hyacinth From Apollo, written specifically for Mr. DiBattista. His recording of Hyacinth From Apollo has been released on the Vienna Modern Masters label.
The past few seasons included some exciting opera credits as Mr. DiBattista created the role of Wesley in the Emmy Award nominated opera, Central Park on PBS' Great Performances (Glimmerglass Opera). He sang the role of Martin in The Tender Land (broadcast on PBS) about which Opera News said, "Tenor Matthew DiBattista was a darkly handsome, ardent romantic interest as Martin. He partnered Laurie well in their several duet scenes, showing excellent enunciation and ringing high notes." The San Antonio Express News said this about Mr. DiBattista's recent Alfred in Die Fledermaus with Lyric Opera San Antonio: "Matthew DiBattista's clean, agile tenor and superb stage presence were made for the role of Alfred." Other roles he has performed include Ernesto in Don Pasquale and Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S Pinafore with Skylight Opera, Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus with Kentucky Opera, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance with Whitewater/Sorg Opera, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Lehigh Opera, Dr. Caius in Falstaff, and Andrew Johnson in The Mother of Us All at Glimmerglass Opera.
Mr. DiBattista's concert credits include the Cincinnati May Festival's Rachmaninoff Vespers, about which American Record Guide said, "Matthew DiBattista was tenor soloist and sounded remarkably Russian - and ecstatic hovering in radiance above the gentle keening of the chorus. His singing of the ‘Nunc Dimittis' was a mystical high point." His recent performance of the Evangelist in the St. John Passion with the Boston University Symphony Chorus and Orchestra was also well received. Notable guest appearances include the Cincinnati Symphony, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the MEC Ensemble of Los Angeles, the Mozart Society Orchestra, the Cincinnati Philharmonia, the Cincinnati Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Knox Music Series and others.
Mr. DiBattista has sung as an Apprentice Artist at both Santa Fe and Glimmerglass Operas and in the Phyllis Curtin Seminar at Tanglewood. He holds a Master's degree and Artist Diploma in voice from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as well as a Bachelor's degree from Boston University.
