As the holiday season approaches, many are filled with feelings of anticipation and delight. For others, however, the holidays can be challenging with so many expectations, and an awareness of a world that is filled with uncertainty, frustration, and in some cases, chaos, and war. And yet, the season is seen as a symbol and beacon of light, of hope, and of love.
Come celebrate the season with us in song, as Bel Canto presents, The World at Christmas, a program of diverse music that invites you to experience longing and hope in Elaine Hagenberg’s setting of the ancient text, O Come, Emmanuel accompanied by a haunting cello obligato; celebrate the return of the light, in a mystical a cappella arrangement by Taylor Scott Davis entitled Solstice; be touched by Anders Edenroth’s The World for Christmas which blends fragments of The Night Before Christmas with lyrics that beg us to consider the fate of the world around us, and featuring our first Bel Canto Music Scholarship recipient, Camden Gilgallon; and be energized and inspired by a hip-hop reimagining of the well-known spiritual, Soon We Will Be Done complete with rap exhortation to be part of the change we seek in the world. As always there will also be gorgeously lush settings of traditional carols along with J. S. Bach’s Cantata 191 Gloria in excelsis Deo, which will feature outstanding Bay Area instrumentalists as well as Napa native, Lisa Austin Frisque (soprano) and her husband, Chad (tenor), as soloists.
Get your tickets soon as last season was sold out. You won’t want to miss these concerts!