The SSO Presents Judas Maccabaeus
SHREVEPORT – – The Shreveport Symphony Orchestra will present George Frideric Handel’s masterful oratorio Judas Maccabaeus Apr. 9 at Shreveport ’s Civic Theatre. In 1717, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) moved to England to compose and produce opera. His oratorios—dramatic renderings of Biblical stories familiar to his English audiences—were enormously successful, and their popularity endured and grew long after Handel’s death.
Judas Maccabaeus of 1746 tells a story with individual characters and commentary from the chorus. Judas Maccabaeus was the great Jewish warrior whose victories and reconsecration of the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 BC are celebrated in the festival of Hanukah. Handel’s setting of this story was an attempt to honor William, Duke of Cumberland, who won a resounding victory over the Scots in 1746. Its libretto, by the Rev. Thomas Morell does have the same orderly alternation of recitatives, arias, and choruses as his other oratorios. One of the oratorio's most familiar choruses, See, the conqu'ring hero comes, was not originally part of Judas Maccabaeus, but was composed for Handel's Joshua in 1747. However this chorus was such a hit, and it is so appropriate for this scene—the Israelites joyously welcoming home the victorious Judas in Act III—that Handel included it in all subsequent performances of Judas Maccabaeus as well. It is a relatively straightforward, almost hymn-like chorus, with three stanzas. The first is sung by a chorus of youths echoed by trumpets, and the second by a chorus of virgins, accompanied with appropriate modesty by a simple continuo harpsichord. The third stanza, for the entire chorus, is a triumphal march with trumpets and drums.
Featured soloists for the concert are Gale Odom - coloratura soprano, Alta Boover - mezzo-soprano, Randal Rushing - tenor, and Timothy Jones - bass-baritone. Chorus members include the Centenary Camerata, Dr. Julia Brasher Thorn - conductor, NSU Chamber Choir – Dr. Burt Allen conductor, and the Red River Children’s Choir – Betty Adkins – director.
This performance of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra is sponsored in part by the Kawaler Family Charitable Trust and the North Louisiana Jewish Federation. The 2004-2005 Season of the Shreveport Symphony is supported by grants from the Louisiana State Arts Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts and the Shreveport Regional Arts Council with funds from the City of Shreveport . The Best Western Suite Hotel in Shreveport is the official hotel of the Shreveport Symphony.
CONCERT INFORMATION AT-A-GLANCE
CONCERT: Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Judas Maccabaeus
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9, 2005
WHERE: Shreveport Civic Theatre, 600 Clyde Fant Parkway
ADMISSION: $7, $18, $30, and $36, with $5 student tickets for seating anywhere in the theatre.
RESERVATIONS: Call the Symphony box office at 227-TUNE (8863) between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through
Friday or visit the office on the fourth floor of The Strand Theatre, 619 Louisiana Ave. The box office opens at noon on concert days at the Civic Theatre.
PARKING: Limited valet parking is available for $3. A shuttle will depart one time from Uptown Shopping Center at 6:15 p.m. A second shuttle will depart from the AmSouth parking garage located on the corner of Milam and Market Streets at 5:30 p.m. Both shuttles will continue to make pickups at the AmSouth garage every 10 minutes until concert time.
