VocalEssence & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

The full VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers, 130 voices strong, join The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for the brilliant, festive opening night of both organizations’ 2007- 2008 Seasons. Sopranos Christina Pier and Mary Wilson (most recently heard with VocalEssence in Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience) join tenor Thomas Cooley as the featured soloists. Nicolas McGegan conducts.

This is a spectacular program of orchestral and vocal highlights from Beethoven’s only opera (Fidelio, first known as “Leonore”), followed by Mendelssohn’s stirring symphony-cantata Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), which was described by Schumann at its premiere as “a glimpse of a Heaven filled with Raphael Madonnas.”