About This Concert

Energized by the spirit of Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, tango, rumba and flamenco, Osvaldo Golijov brings the rich tradition of Latin American music to his interpretation of the final days in the life of Jesus Christ on earth as described in the Bible’s Gospel of Mark.

Program

GOLIJOV
La Pasión según San Marcos (The Passion According to St. Mark) / 87 min

Artists

• Minnesota Orchestra

• María Guinand, conductor

• Marcela Lorca, stage director

• Jessica Rivera, soprano

• Luciana Souza, mezzo

• Reynaldo González-Fernández, vocalist and dancer

• Gonzalo Grau, piano

• Mikael Ringquist, percussion

• Marcus Santos, percussion

• Michael Ward-Bergeman, accordion

• Aquiles Báez, guitar

• Jeff Bailey, bass

• Guerreiro, capoeira and berimbau

• Border CrosSing, choir

• Minnesota Chorale

• Ahmed Anzaldúa, choral preparation

Fun Facts

• Commissioned to mark the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach, La Pasión según San Marcos had its premiere in Stuttgart’s Liederhalle in 2000.

• María Guinand conducted the world premiere of La Pasión, and composer Osvaldo Golijov dedicated the piece to her and the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela.

• Audiences at La Pasión’s premiere were stunned by its originality, particularly its unprecedented incorporation of capoeira and santeria in a religious piece of classical music, and responded with a 30-minute standing ovation.

• Critics have hailed it as “a work of genius” and “the first indisputably great composition of the 21st century,” and The New Yorker's Alex Ross wrote that it “drops like a bomb on the belief that classical music is an exclusively European art.”

• Founded in 1967 by Venezuelan composer Alberto Grau, Schola Cantorum de Venezuela has performed with renowned conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Krzysztof Penderecki and John Adams, among many others.

• According to The New York Times, Golijov “…is no less than a major energizing force in a classical world desperately in need of a new vision.”

• Twin Cities choral ensembles Border CrosSing and the Minnesota Chorale join the Orchestra for a dramatic collaboration of music and theater.