Touring
MUSIC TO ACCOMPANY A DEPARTURE
Following their widely acclaimed collaboration on Lagrime di San Pietro, Peter Sellars, Grant Gershon and singers of the Los Angeles Master Chorale reunite with a deeply personal meditation on what it means to say goodbye in times of struggle. The luminous music of the Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz’s serves as the inspiration for this ceremony of remembrance and devotion.
Schütz composed the Musikalische Exequien (Music to Accompany a Departure) during the terrible ravages of the 30 Years War, and it was dedicated to the memory of one of his dearest friends and benefactors. Schütz is widely regarded as the greatest German composer before Bach, and the Musikalische Exequien was the first requiem written in the language of the people rather than Latin. The music speaks with both quiet emotion and enormous depth of feeling. This is a vocal work of soaring purity, with solo voices interacting with a constantly shifting combination of choral forces.
The work feature 24 singers accompanied by Baroque organ and viol da gamba to create an intimate ceremony of connection across time and space. As with Lagrime di San Pietro, this presentation tours to festivals and venues around the world.
Please note: The content of this concert may be emotionally challenging as it includes themes of death, loss, and grief.
Touring Contact:
Worldwide Touring Representation
David Lieberman Artists' Representatives
info@dlartists.com
PO Box 1368
Newport Beach, CA 92658
David Lieberman Artists is the official worldwide touring contact for the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Music to Accompany a Departure is made possible by generous support from Lillian Pierson Lovelace, Patrick R. Fitzgerald, and Ron Myrick. The touring production is supported by the Joan and Jeff Beal Artistic Innovation Fund, the Andrea and Gregory Williams Collaborating Artists Fund, and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
LAGRIME DI SAN PIETRO
From the creative mind of acclaimed director Peter Sellars comes his very first a cappella staging and most personal work to date. Orlando di Lasso knew that Lagrime was to be the last piece he would ever compose, and so he packed every measure with an emotionally charged texture that channeled all of his pain and remorse into a towering work of beauty.
Twenty-one singers transform this 75-minute sweeping a cappella Renaissance masterpiece – committed to memory and dramatically staged – into an overwhelmingly emotional performance piece. Set to the poetry of Luigi Tansillo (1510-1568), “I accept responsibility” is the fundamental theme of this work depicting the seven stages of grief that St. Peter experienced after disavowing his knowledge of Jesus Christ on the day of his arrest and prior to his crucifixion.
Sellars translates Lagrime through a contemporary lens, suggesting a powerful allegory that by taking responsibility and facing our past head-on, we can forge a more resolved and fulfilling future.
The Los Angeles Master Chorale production of Lagrime di San Pietro is made possible with underwriting from the Lovelace Family Trust and is dedicated to the memory of Jon Lovelace in honor of the friendship he shared with Peter Sellars.
The touring production is also supported by the Andrea and Gregory Williams Collaborating Arts Fund; and by lead sponsors Kiki and David Gindler; patron sponsors Philip A. Swan, and Laney and Tom Techentin; and contributing sponsors Jerrie and Abbott Brown, Cindy and Gary Frischling, Marian H. and John+ Niles, Frederick J. Ruopp+, and Eva and Marc Stern.
+ In memoriam
