Chorus Niagara queues up for its 54th season
Chorus Niagara has a Bach magnum opus, a May night with Mozart, and a wartime world premiere in store for its 2017/18 season.
The company’s 54th year, and third at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines, begins Nov. 4 with Canadian composer Allan Bean’s Last Light Above the World: A War Litany.
Commissioned by Chorus Niagara, the piece uses soloists, narrators and orchestra to portray human conflict.
The company’s annual Christmas show follows on Dec. 16. Big Band Christmas offers a 20-piece band paired with one of Canada’s premiere jazz pianists, John Sherwood, to perform Swedish composer Nils Lindberg’s sweeping Christmas Cantata.
Bach takes the spotlight next with St. Matthew Passion March 3. Dubbed ‘the opera he never wrote,’ it combines two choruses, two orchestras and six soloists for an innovative interpretation of Bach’s 1727 sacred oratorio. A complementary pre-concert chat will be offered for ticket holders an hour before the show.
The family show All Aboard! on March 25 offers a musical excursion across Canada as lumberjacks, bronco-busters and others tell their stories in song. The matinee show pairs Chorus Niagara with the Chorus Niagara Children’s Choir. The season concludes May 5 with
Amadeus, a gala performance of one of Mozart’s greatest works, mass in C minor, with four soloists. Also included are portions from four of his most renowned operas: Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte. Individual shows are $43 adult, $41 for 60 and over, and $28 for under 30.
Season subscriptions are $140 adults, $135 for 60 and over, and $90 for under 30. www.firstontariopac.ca