poster | programme

Et Exsultavit (from The Magnificat in D major, BWV 243)
“He has looked with favour on his lowly servant”.
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Text: Gospel of Luke (chapter 1)
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But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell (from Messiah)
nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.
(from Messiah Part 2, Scene 2, “His sacrificial death, His passage through Hell and Resurrection”)
Music: George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759)
Text: Psalm 16 Verse 10 (compiled by Charles Jennings from the Bible)
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I know that my Redeemer liveth (from Messiah)
and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.
Text: Book of Job 19:25–26 and The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 15: 20
This aria opens Part 3, Scene 1 “The promise of bodily resurrection and redemption from Adam’s fall”
Music: George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759)
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April (from The Seasons)
The blue, pure snowdrop-flower, and near it the last snowdrops.
The last sheds tears over past griefs, and the first dreams of happiness.
Text: A. Maykov
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
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Ombra mai fu (from Serse)
The opening aria from the 1738 opera Serse by Handel.
No plant ever gave shade that was dearer and more lovely, or more sweet.
Text: Anonymous, after Silvio Stampiglia
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Se tu m’ami
from Arie antiche: ad una voce per canto e pianoforte, published 1890
Music:Alessandro Parisotti (1853 – 1913) after Pergolesi
Text: Paolo Antonio Rolli (1687-1765)
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April (from Two Pieces, 1925)
Music: John Ireland (1879 – 1962)
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My heart is like a singing bird
Music: Hubert Parry (1848 – 1918)
Text: “A Birthday” by Christina Rosetti (1830 – 1894)
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The Silver Swan
Music: Eric Thiman (1900 – 1975)
Text: Anonymous 16th century, possibly by Orlando Gibbons (1583 – 1625)

Down by the Salley Gardens
Music: Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Text: William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
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April (from Once Around the Sun, 2004)
Written when Talbot was the composer in residence for Classic FM
Music: Joby Talbot (b. 1971)
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Ave Maria (from Cavalleria Rusticana)
The action of the opera takes place in rural Sicily on Easter Sunday.
This aria is a contemporary vocal arrangement of the Intermezzo.
Hail Mary! Holy Mother. Guide the feet of the wretched one who implores thee
Along the path of bitter grief, and fill their heart with faith and hope.
O merciful Mother, thou who suffered so greatly, See, ah! See my anguish.
Ah! Do not abandon me in the cruel torment of endless weeping.
Hail Mary! Do not leave me, who is oppressed by grief. O Mother, have mercy!
Music: Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945)
Text by Pietro Mazzoni
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Inno di Pasqua (from Cavalleria Rusticana)
originally for Chorus
We rejoice that our Saviour lives! He, all-glorious, arose from the dead;
The Lord has given us joys of heaven. All the sorrows of darkness are fled!
Text: Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci