Tenebrae
Oppression and Liberation
Thursday 17 March 2011, 19:30 - 21:30
St Andrew Holborn [ map ]
5 St Andrew Street
London EC4A 3AF
Orlando Chamber Choir
James Weeks, director
Patrick Osborne, reader
The Christian liturgy of Tenebrae marks Jesus' suffering and death for humanity before the symbolic rebirth of spring. Orlando di Lasso's austere Tenebrae Responsories are offset by his richly plangent Lamentations settings and other penitential motets. James Weeks' new work, commissioned with support from the BBC Performing Arts Fund, revisits these ancient rites from a secular standpoint. Juxtaposing Tenebrae texts with modern poetry of oppression, Orlando Tenebrae is a stark exposition of these universal themes for our own age.
