The historic Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor will again be the setting for the Choral Society of the Hamptons’ summer concert, “The Joys of Opera,” on Sunday, July 18, and the American Hotel will be the site of the special post-concert dinner.
The program will highlight Gioachino Rossini’s Stabat Mater and a group of popular opera choruses.
Choristers from all over the East End will be joined at the concert by the South Fork Chamber Orchestra and four professional soloists from the opera world: soprano Audrey DuBois, mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke, tenor Hansu Kim and bass Ryan Allen. They will be conducted by Mark Mangini, the society’s music director, who led the chorus and orchestra in an acclaimed Brahms Requiem at the Old Whalers’ Church last summer.
Rossini is best known for his operas, among them “The Barber of Seville” and “William Tell.” His love of the human voice and his gift for melody get full rein in his Stabat Mater, and its numerous solo sections are operatic. Although the text speaks of suffering and resurrection, the work moves from lament to joyous affirmation in a masterly fugue.
Although Rossini’s Stabat Mater was sometimes criticized as not solemn enough, Rossini’s fans were so excited at its premiere in 1842 that they mobbed the composer and followed him home.
The music will be familiar to East End audiences, according to the music director.
“Everybody knows the tunes of the opera choruses we’ll do,” Mr. Mangini said. “But when those melodies are heard in the original languages with an orchestra, they’re far more rousing.”
After the concert, in a tradition begun last summer, the Choral Society of the Hamptons will host a dinner for music lovers at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. The dinner will be accompanied by Channing Daughters wines and the menu will include a few of the hotel’s signature dishes.
Benefactor tickets to the American Hotel event are $250 and include preferred seating at the concert. Underwriters, who pay $500, receive most preferred seating and a Rossini CD. Seating at the dinner, which starts at 7:30 p.m., is limited, and those interested are urged to make reservations as soon as possible.
Tickets to the concert, which starts at 5:30 p.m., are $25 in advance and $30 at the door for adults. Concert tickets for those under 18 are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Preferred seating tickets without dinner are $50.
Dinner and concert tickets may be purchased on the society’s website, www.ChoralSocietyOfTheHamptons.org, at the Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor, from choristers, or by calling (631) 204-9402.
As she was last summer, Patti Kenner of East Hampton and New York City is chairwoman of the dinner committee. Committee members include Joy Lewis of Sag Harbor, Lylla Carter of Southampton, Molly Channing of Bridgehampton, and Cindy Willis and Carol Balodis of Southampton.
The Choral Society has brought major choral works to singers and audiences of the East End since it was founded in 1946. Over the years, it has sung in Europe and hosted choral groups from aboard. More recently, inspired by its music director, Mark Mangini, its range has grown. It has commissioned a work by a MacArthur Fellow, performed at the Music Festival of the Hamptons, and revived a cantata by the late Lukas Foss, joined by the Greenwich Village Singers, at Lincoln Center as well as in Bridgehampton.
on Jul 6, 2010