![]() Finlandia was a much more successful idea. I imagine its disappearance after its first performances is explained by the same reasons that left me unimpressed. Sibelius’s The Captive Queen is a late example of the secular cantata/oratorio it served a political purpose, the Queen symbolizing the Finns, and her captors, the Russian Empire. The Schumann work was an example of the folk-tale oratorio Mendelssohn’s unfinished opera an example of the failed Romantic folk-tale opera. The fashion for orchestral music telling a story in symphonic poems, and large-scale, theatrical-type choral compositions became the Romantic oratorio. Some tried to reinvent opera in the Romantic-German manner, like Weber, Spohr, Marschner but it took the genius of Wagner to make it work. ![]() Some German composers tended to scorn opera, especially the Italian and French – Rossini, Donizetti, Auber, Boieldieu, Meyerbeer. These could attract the new audiences which felt out of place in the expensive splendour of opera houses, and who were without the classical education necessary to follow many operas. At the same time, large middle classes arose, developing a taste for pubic orchestral and choral concerts, with ever-increasing numbers of players and singers. ![]() Traditional opera subjects drawn from Classical Antiquity and the Bible and the Middle Ages were rejected. The problem can be ascribed to Romanticism, which encouraged composers to find new modes of expression, focusing on their own natures, and on stories that could be interpreted through non-theatrical music. ![]() However, much of the choral music composed during that era has not stood the test of time. Michael Vinten and his Bach Choir had decided to explore some pretty unexpected choral repertoire with this concert of mid-nineteenth century, plus a rather out-of-season, comparable work from half a century later. St Andrew’s on The Terrace Saturday 8 August, 3 pm Soloists: Bianca Andrew, Marian Hawke, Maaike Christie-Beekman, Oliver Sewell, Christian Thurston, Roger Wilson Manon: En fermant les yeux - Grieg.Romantic Fairytales from the Bach Choir of Wellington, conducted by Michael Vinten
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