Mendelssohn’s Elijah has been described as ‘more of an opera than an oratorio’. Intensely theatrical, it calls for a substantial orchestra, a large line-up of soloists, and a chorus that has both power and sensitivity.
The work was a smash hit at its first performance in 1846 before two thousand people in Birmingham’s Town Hall — a building whose interior is very similar in size and layout to the Auckland Town Hall.
Be prepared for the widest range of musical emotions, from the thrilling, ceremonial battle of “Baal We Cry to Thee” to the soft, three-part gem of “Lift thine Eyes”. Elijah is nothing less than the lifetime journey of a soul.
Jennifer Barrington Soprano
Helen Medlyn Mezzo
Martin Buckigham Tenor
Martin Snell Bass
Auckland Choral
Pipers Sinfonia
Uwe Grodd Conductor
Saturday 2 September 7.30pm
Auckland Town Hall
Like so many contraltos, I first got put in the alto section as a school girl because I could read music and manage to sing a line of harmony. I joined Auckland Choral when I was in high school and now I’ve been a member for 40 years! I started singing with my mum as a toddler, sitting on her knee while she played the piano and sang soprano and tenor Messiah arias. I used to come to Auckland Choral’s Saturday dress rehearsals in the Town Hall and follow the score in my early teenage years, and it was a natural step to join Mum in the choir when I was 15. I remember Choral Hall in Airedale Street where we used to meet (before Mayoral Drive was built). It was a dusty old building and freezing in winter, but the ladies in the alto section were very kind to me and welcomed me into the back row. Nothing really changes in that respect; the Auckland Choral altos today are a great bunch of people as well!
I learnt to sing on my mother's knee and have been singing ever since! In school in Wales I sang in small and large choirs in the eisteddfod. As soon as I left school I joined a choral society and have always been a member of one choir or another. I joined Auckland Choral in 2006 and have been on the management committee for the last 2 years. Choral singing has given me opportunities to make and keep wonderful friends, to travel, to see magnificent buildings, to hear all the major works and many new compositions, and to be part of a fabulous music making machine, always striving to improve. I have sung Handel's Messiah in 4 continents, in 2016 clocked up my 70th Messiah, and I still love it. I am also a semi retired speech language therapist and enjoy spending time with my 5 grandchildren.
Garnet has a long involvement with Auckland Choral after his first introduction to singing in Lead Roles in Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas at Kings High School in Dunedin,followed by being a member of Capping Sextet at Otago University with Sir William Southgate in the 1960s.