This event has already occurred
Slideshow image
Slideshow image
nav image
nav image
Save to your Calendar

Take the playful opera composer Rossini, 60 singers, 2 grand pianos and a harmonium, combine them in the majestic space of a Cathedral and … what you have is an evening of exuberant music making!

Peter Butterfield conducts the Victoria Philharmonic Choir in Gioacchino Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, a work whose title reflects the composer’s characteristic wit, as it’s the very opposite of small and solemn!  

Soloists are soprano Jennifer Turner, mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, tenor Benjamin Butterfield and bass Louis Dillon.  

Although the words are from the traditional Latin Mass, the Petite Messe was not written for a church service, but was commissioned by a Parisian countess for her private chapel, where it had its premiere in 1864.  

The VPC will perform the original version accompanied by two pianos and harmonium, which Rossini himself preferred to the larger, orchestral score he wrote to prevent anyone else doing it after his death. At the keyboards are well-known pianists Kinza Tyrell and Kimberley Bartczak, with organist Michael Molnar on the harmonium.  

Rossini’s own words, on his own score: “Dear God, here it is finished, this poor little mass. I was born for comic opera, as you well know! A little skill, a little heart, that’s all I have. Be merciful then, and admit me to Paradise.”   Come hear the heavenly results!

The VPC gratefully acknowledges support from: Le fonds Chantal-Bérard through the Victoria Foundation & The McLean Foundation   

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
Tickets: $25 reg. / $10 student / Free for child under 13
Livestream of the concert by DONATION