MESSE DE MINUIT (Charpentier) Sydney 2020 Pinchgut Opera
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Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Messe de minuit pour noel
- Composer: Charpentier Marc-Antoine
- Libretto: traditional
- Venue & Opera Company: City Recital Hall, Sydney, Australia
- Recorded: December 2020
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Simon Rickard, Chloe Lankshear, Anna Fraser, Eric Peterson, Nicholas Jones, David Greco
- Conductor: Erin Helyard
- Orchestra: Orchestra of the Antipodes
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Pinchgut Opera
- Date Published: 2020
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: Pinchgut Opera FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Messe de minuit pour Noël (Midnight mass for Christmas), H.9, is a mass for four voices and orchestra by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, written in 1694 based on the melodies of ten French Christmas carols. Charpentier called for eight soloists, a duo of two sopranos and two trios of alto, tenor and bass, but it can be performed by five soloists. Choir and orchestra are in four parts, scored for flutes, strings (violins and viols), organ and basso continuo. The mass is regarded as a unique work in both the composer’s work and in the genre. While in Charpentier’s time, the mass was performed by all-male choirs, it has later been performed and recorded also by mixed choirs with modern instruments.
Charpentier composed the Messe de minuit pour Noël c. 1694 for the Jesuit church of the Église Saint-Louis in Paris where he was music director. He upheld a longstanding tradition for this mass to be celebrated around midnight as the first of three on Christmas Day: to base the music on melodies of French noëls (Christmas carols). Some of these tunes were secular in origin, and in theory the use of secular material in church music had been forbidden by the Council of Trent, but long traditions were tolerated. Charpentier had written instrumental version of nine carols, of which he used seven also for the mass. The texts of the mass ordinary were matched with ten carol tunes. The music is set for four vocal parts and a small orchestra of two flutes, strings and organ.
Quoted from Wikipedia