Some Monastics Sing Opera Too

By Brother Luke

            Four New Skete monastics sang with the local Battenkill Chorale this fall season. Weekly

practice sessions began in September and culminated on January 20 and 21 with two thrilling performances of the Verdi Requiem at the Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College in Saratoga, New York. The hall was sold out for both performances, and the Sunday performance was also available streaming on line (here is the link: https://livestream.com/accounts/2689920/events/8011178). Singing our monastic offices is one of the joys of monastic life in the Orthodox tradition, but stepping into the operatic world of Giuseppe Verdi to experience the emotional power of this memorial for the departed is at another level entirely. We four, Sister Cecelia and Brothers Marc, Stavros, and Luke, joined with the other 100+ members of the chorale, 47 orchestra members, and four soloists for an unforgettable experience.

            To join the chorus you only need to have desire. Janet McGhee, who founded and directs the chorale, takes in all who want to join, no audition required. She then works with the group to prepare for the two concerts scheduled each season. Through her skill she draws from the group unimaginable beauty. We were honored to be a part of this concert.

            The score itself is a powerful canvas of varying colors and textures, ranging from the hushed opening whisper of Requiem to the thundering outburst of Dies Irae, which incorporates the emotionally heart-wrenching tenor solo Ingemisco, to the baroque dance of the Sanctus and the final fugue Libera Me.

            Written originally as a memorial to the Italian poet and nationalist Alessandro Manzoni, this Requiem later took on another layer of meaning as a result of its use by the Nazis in the Terezin concentration camp. The Jewish prisoners, with only one copy of the score, learned the music and gave 16 performances. These were used cynically by the Nazis to convince Red Cross inspectors and others that they were treating the Jews in these camps well. Most of those prisoners were sent from Terezin to other camps to be killed in the ovens. Janet McGhee happened to meet one the Terezin survivors who had sung in these performances, Edgar Krasa. His story left a searing emotional impression on Janet, which she shared with us during our preparations for this performance. She also included that account in her radio interview as a preview of the performance (here is the link to that interview: http://wamc.org/post/battenkill-chorale-perform-verdis-requiem-skidmore-colleges-zankel-music-center).

            We are lucky to live here and have the opportunity to join with our neighbors in the Battenkill Chorale to sing such a magnificent glory of Western music. And from our perspective as monastics living a religious life, it affirms our deepest convictions about the glory of the divine expressed through the creative genius of the human spirit! What Verdi created we are able to enter into generation after generation, to bring, at even the darkest moments, rays of light and hope.