Rossini: Stabat Mater
Rossini was 37 years old when he retired from writing opera, having composed 39 in 20 years, including The Barber of Seville and William Tell. His most significant composition in the remaining years of his life is the Stabat Mater, the liturgical setting of the medieval hymn that describes Mary’s suffering during Christ’s crucifixion. It was a joint composition, at first, as Rossini was in poor health and enlisted his pupil to complete some of the movements. At the death of the commissioning Spanish patron, the manuscript was auctioned off to a Parisian publisher who intended to publish the work. Rossini moved heaven and earth to stop the publication from release before the world may realize it had been in fact co-authored. Alongside threats to “pursue the publisher to death,” Rossini replaced his pupil’s movements with his own, and the premiere of Rossini’s definitive score was in Paris in 1842. The Stabat Mater is where church goes to the opera, full of brooding and energetic passion in a composition that merges sacred conventions with the lyrical and dramatic writing we treasure in his secular output.
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Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Davidson College Presbyterian Church
$10 Public / Free for Students
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