Coro Allegro Launches 2023–2024 Season With IDENTITY: RECLAIMED 

Against a backdrop of global cultural conflict, Coro Allegro, Boston's award-winning LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus, opens its 2023–2024 season with works exploring the reclamation of the individual amid political violence and war. The program, IDENTITY: reclaimed, offers exquisite works by composers Alberto Ginastera, James MacMillan, and Maurice Duruflé, led by Artistic Director David Hodgkins on Sunday, November 19, at the Church of the Covenant at 3 p.m. 

"Coro Allegro's season opener will evoke a colorful spectrum of emotions, from the rage of The Lamentations of Jeremiah to Durufle's soothing Requiem," said David Hodgkins. "These intense and introspective works explore the individual against the tides of political violence. We invite audiences to reflect on historical echoes, from Biblical antiquity to 20th-century Latin America."

The performance opens with Alberto Ginastera's The Lamentations of Jeremiah, which paints a haunting tale of Jerusalem's fall and reverberates across the millennia of war, pain, and persecution emanating from the cradle of civilization. The work is infused with elements from Argentinian folk music and carries the historical weight of Argentina's political turmoil and the personal strife of a composer blacklisted by the regime of Juan Perón.

James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados weaves a provocative choral drama in three movements, using the poetry of Argentine-Chilean-American writer Ariel Dorfman and Ana Maria Mendoza to depict the anguish surrounding the disappearance of political prisoners. MacMillan masterfully blends sacred texts and secular elements in this profound and emotionally charged composition. The performance comes on the 50th anniversary of the military coup that brought about the brutal regime of Augusto Pinochet, a history that Chileans still grapple with today.

The program concludes with Maurice Duruflé's exquisite Requiem, a piece that emerges from the aftermath of World War II with resonant themes of forgiveness, solace, and everlasting light. Drawing inspiration from Gregorian chant and incorporating the harmonic colors of 20th-century French music, the piece is an expressive portrayal of life and eternity. The version performed by Coro Allegro fuses the choir's transcendent voices with featured guests mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara, baritone Taras Leschishin, organist Heinrich Christensen, and cellist Eugene Kim.

IDENTITY: Reclaimed
Sunday, November 19, 2023, 3 pm 

Church of the Covenant, Boston, MA
Tickets $30-80.
ALBERTO GINASTERA, The Lamentations of Jeremiah

JAMES MACMILLAN, Cantos Sagrados

MAURICE DURUFLÉ, Requiem

Coro Allegro, David Hodgkins, Artistic Director
Clare McNamara, mezzo soprano
Taras Leschishin, baritone 

Eugene Kim, cello

Heinrich Christensen, organ

Coro Allegro is Boston's award-winning LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus. Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Hodgkins, Coro Allegro builds bridges between disparate communities and enriches lives in the Greater Boston area and beyond. Since its founding in 1991, Coro Allegro has presented 28 world premieres, 3 American premieres, and 8 Boston premieres. Coro Allegro performs in Greater Boston and reaches national and international audiences through digital programming, radio broadcasts, festival performances, and four commercial recordings. In 2008, Coro Allegro established the Daniel Pinkham Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to classical music and to the LGBTQ+ community. Learn more at www.coroallegro.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.