Weekend Concert Calendar, 5/29/08

Your choices for this weekend are not overwhelming in quantity, but delightful in quality!

Friday:

Top pick goes to the Back Bay Chorale's performance of Elijah, starring Richard Zeller, Elijah; Elizabeth Keusch, soprano; Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo-soprano; Yeghishe Manucharyan, tenor. There is a pre-concert lecture at 7:00 pm by Ann Howard Jones, director of choral activities at BU. The concert will be at Sanders Theatre at 8:00 pm. I'll be there - come say hello!

Also that evening the Boston Choral Ensemble presents Randall Thompson's Peaceable Kingdom and also the winner of their Annual Commission Competition. This will be at 8:00 pm at First Church in Cambridge. They will repeat this program on Sunday, June 1 at 2:00 pm at St. John the Evangelist in downtown Boston. I will note that the Friday concert is $20 a head, and the Sunday concert is free. (So if you go Sunday, be nice and make a donation!)

Saturday:

Tough choice tonight! At 8 pm at Symphony Hall you can hear the Boston Pops Gospel Night featuring Oleta Adams and the Boston Pops Gospel Choir. That looks pretty awesome to me.

But instead I will be going to hear Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares and very excited about it I am, too! They will be at the Church of the Covenant in downtown Boston at 8 pm. Here is their website. I have never heard them live, but the sound on their recordings is thrilling. You can listen to sound clips on their website. Damn, that sound just hits me like nothing else.

Sunday:

Chorus pro Musica (in concert - ha! - with Concert Opera Boston) will present Bizet's Carmen. Featuring Victoria Livengood as Carmen, Adam Klein as Don José, Robert Honeysucker (woohoo!) as Escamilllo, Nouné Karapetian as Micaela, and Philip Candilis as Zuniga. This will be at 3 pm at NEC's Jordan Hall, and will be sung in French with projected English translations.

At 8:00 pm the Zamir Chorale presents "Wild Peace," a celebration of works from Israel's greatest composers. Included will be the world premiere of Charles D. Osborne’s oratorio for chorus and orchestra, Like Wildflowers, Suddenly, inspired by the poem "Wild Peace," by Israeli poet Yehudah Amichai. This is at Sanders Theatre (a busy place this weekend!).

And if you wish, there is an open sing of the Brahms Requiem in Charlestown at 3 pm. It is at St. Mary - St. Catherine of Siena Parish and is hosted by Coro Polifonico of Boston (which I have to confess, I have never heard of before. They should join the GBCC!) Scores will be provided, but bring your own if you have one.