Verdi’s Requiem. Daniel Hege conducts the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra with Marie-Adele McArthur, soprano; Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo-soprano; Michael Hendrick, tenor; Gary Relyea, bass-baritone; and the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club, directed by Scott Tucker.
By Frank Herron Staff writer
Scott Tucker has been thinking about the “Wrath of God” a bit, lately.
More specifically and, more appropriately, in Latin it’s the “Dies Irae,” a choral section of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem.
The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club, which Tucker directs, will sing the piece Friday and Saturday nights with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.
“When you’re singing the “Day of Wrath,’ you’ve got to feel it,” Tucker said recently from his office in Ithaca.
His singers evidently felt it in 1998, when the Cornell groups last sang the monumental piece with the SSO.
At the time, a reviewer from The Post-Standard said, “Their voices in the chilling, fire and brimstone of the Dies Irae matched all the thunder of the orchestra without losing consistency of pitch.”
Although the singers are different, the director isn’t. Tucker has led the groups for more than 10 years.
SSO music director Daniel Hege isn’t worried. “They’ve always proven to be excellent performers,” he said of the Cornell groups, which sing with the SSO every three years or so.
The chorus (female) and glee club (male) which amounts to about 120 singers includes some students from Central and Northern New York.
They are Kjirsten Alexander (Saranac), Ben Darfler (Groton), Corey Earle (Freeville), Allison Fritts-Penniman (Trumansburg), Bethan Lemley (Ithaca), Daniel Lepage (Ithaca), Emily Rivest (Dryden), Katelyn Smithling (Beaver Falls) and Rekha Thammana (Manlius).
The glee club spent much of January on the road in the Northeast, presenting 12 concerts and two workshops between Jan. 6 and 28. Tour stops were in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Much of the time was spent in a bus, Tucker said. “I’m a big believer in bus trips.”
It brings the group closer together. The closeness should show up musically, he said.
He acknowledged that the Cornell singers are up to the task of filling the 2,100-seat Crouse-Hinds Theater.
For one thing, Verdi’s work passes one of Tucker’s first tests: “It’s singable.”
And the students, he said, are eager to perform.
The details
What: Verdi’s Requiem. Daniel Hege conducts the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra with Marie-Adele McArthur, soprano; Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, mezzo-soprano; Michael Hendrick, tenor; Gary Relyea, bass-baritone; and the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club, directed by Scott Tucker.
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Where: Crouse-Hinds Theater, Mulroy Civic Center, 411 Montgomery St., Syracuse.
Tickets: $16 to $66; student rush tickets are $5.
For more information: 424-8200, (800) 724-3810 or www.syracusesymphony.org
Also: The Cornell Alumni Association of Central New York sponsors a reception for the musicians after the Saturday concert. For more information, call 422-0795 or send an email to [email protected] or [email protected].
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PHOTO
File photo/Dennis Nett, 2005
DANIEL HEGE will lead the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in Classics Series concerts.
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