Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Randal Turner takes on a role of biblical proportions

Randal Turner and the biblical Elijah

The Biblical figure Elijah was no slouch. After all, he raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and was lofted into the sky in a whirlwind by a chariot and horses. The role of Mendelsohn's "Elijah" is also no slouch and it requires some lofty singing from the baritone.

On Friday, May 4, 2012 at 8:00 PM, you can hear Randal Turner take on the role at the Spring Music Festival in Greenwich, Connecticut. He'll be joined by sopranos Hanna Golodinskii and Carolyn Paulus, treble Katie Weatherseed, mezzo-soprano Linnea Conley and tenor Christopher Pfund. The First Church Festival Chorus and chamber orchestra will be led by Craig Scott Symons. The concert is free of charge, but a donation is strongly encouraged (or Elijah will bring fire down upon your head).

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings "It is enough" from "Elijah":  

The oratorio depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament. Mendelssohn made sure to include some of the grander episodes in Elijah's life, including the resurrection of a dead youth, the bringing of rain to parched Israel through Elijah's prayers, and the bodily ascension of Elijah on a fiery chariot into heaven. Perhaps the most dramatic episode is the "contest of the gods," in which Jehovah consumes an offered sacrifice in a column of fire, after a failed sequence of frantic prayers by the prophets of the god Baal.

For more information, visit the First Congregational Church of Greenwich website

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