Tickets still available for unique Mendelssohn’s creation of ‘Elijah’
The Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra and choir. Photo: Bill Hiskett.
Tickets are still on sale for a unique event which is to take place at St Mary’s Church, in Bury St Edmunds, later this month.
The Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra plus soloists and dozens of singers, drawn from all over Suffolk, are set to perform Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” on Saturday, August 22.
The singers will be the choir behind the dramatised performance of the classic work which features the story from the Bible about an actual person who lived around 900BC.
Elijah is the story of one man who continued to stand up for what he knew to be right even when everyone else turned against him.
In the Bible story, Elijah never died. Instead, he was taken by “a fiery chariot” into heaven.
Felix Mendelssohn was a gifted composer who died at the age of just 38 having written some of the best-loved classical pieces of today, such as “Fingal’s Cave”, a musical picture of in island in the Hebrides.
A series of rehearsals have been taking place over the past two months for the choir at Culford School and Rattlesden Pavilion, with the final runs at the church on Friday, August 21, and prior to the actual performance the following day.
Conductor Leslie Olive said: “This performance of Elijah will be one of the great highlights of my year.”
Alongside the choir will be the orchestra and soloists including one from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
The performance also has “a hint of theatre” devised by the distinguished stage director Tim Welton, who is also a Suffolk resident.
Mr Ovlive added: “I’ve been inviting people to sing for a very, very, long time, and there must have been many thousands by now.
“The gang we’ve got for ‘Elijah’ are great to work with and we are having a lot of fun.
“The ‘Elijah’ story is a great story and full of human feeling both sad and happy, and it has a really great ending.
“It looks like I’m going to have just over 80 singers rather than the full 100 I had dreamt of, but we are having a great time mastering the fabulous music.
“Boy, are they good. Hope you’ll come and hear us.”
Tickets are available now from the website of the Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal: booking@theatreroyal.org
For further information please contact Leslie Olive leslie.olive@suffolkphil.org