Mozart and Wallace to score in Mullingar

Mullingar Choral Society has an exciting presentation lined up for its Spring Concert in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, which takes place this Sunday, March 3.Two Mozart works, the Coronation Mass and the Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, followed by excerpts from Wallace's Maritana comprise the evening's 3 part programme of baroque and late nineteenth century operatic music.The Mullingar Choral Society's concert will have an internationally acclaimed cast of soloists, Mary Hegarty, Soprano, Lynda Lee, Alto, Eamonn Mulhall, Tenor, and Owen Gilhooly, Bass. Once again, the Dublin Baroque Players will provide the orchestral accompaniment, with organist Fintan Farrelly. The evening's conductor will be Fergus O'Carroll, Musical Director, Mullingar Choral Society (By kind permission RTE).Tickets €20pp are available from Days Bazaar/ Rochforts/Mullingar Arts Centre/ or any member of Mullingar Choral Society. In addition tickets will be on sale at Mullingar Cathedral door on the evening of performance, Sunday march 3rd.The MusicThe Coronation Mass was completed in 1779 in Salzburg. Mozart had just returned to the city after 18 months of fruitless job hunting. His father Leopold got him a job as court organist and composer at Salzburg Cathedral. The mass was almost certainly premiered there on Easter Sunday 1779. It appears to have acquired the nickname "Coronation" at the Imperial court in Vienna in the early nineteenth century.Famed for the beauty of its solo soprano aria Laudate Dominum (Psalm 116), the Vesperae Solennes de Confessore was completed in 1780 and is the second of two early evening Vespers composed by Mozart for liturgical use in Salzburg Cathedral. The Vesperae Solennes de Confessore follows the standard liturgy in including the Magnificat with the five psalms utilized in the Vespers service.William Vincent Wallace's Maritana was first produced at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in November 1845, the following year in Dublin and Philadelphia, and then in New York and Vienna in 1848. In 1873, Maritana became the first opera produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. It was revived in Dublin in 1877, and in London at Her Majesty's in 1880, in an Italian version by Mattei. A 1902 production was seen at Covent Garden. It was produced again at the London Lyceum in 1925 and at Sadler's Wells in 1931, remaining popular until the middle of the 20th century.The Royal Dublin Society revived the work in concert form in 2006, with an orchestra conducted by Proinnsias O Duinn and singers led by Mairead Burke and Robin Tritschler. The abiding Irish interest in the work is reflected in the works of James Joyce, in his novel Ulysses and his stories The Dead and A Mother (in Dubliners).Mullingar Choral Society has a history going back to 1968 and is a shining gem in the town's cultural crown.