Stabat Mater

Composed for four solo voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass), mixed choir and symphonic orchestra, the work scrupulously follows the Latin text of the Stabat Mater, as magnified by Pergolesi in his illustrious score from 1736. The 13th century text, recounting the anguish of the Virgin at the foot of the Cross, is filled with a deep solemnity, which makes Rossini’s aesthetic choices, full of vocal seduction and operatic hedonism, all the more surprising. The highly secular tone, bordering on the sensual, immediately drew criticism upon the composer: how dare he seek to entertain with such a sacred subject? How is one to understand, for example, that the Cujus animam gementem, evoking the mother’s grieving heart over her crucified Son, corresponds to a march sung by an elegant Tenor? Is this not blasphemy? Taking on such incongruities with the full range of his theatrical imagination, Rossini sweeps away all such objections: what matters, he claims, is that the music, regardless of its character, be of the highest quality. On this point, the least we can say is that he remains true to his word. By the sumptuousness of the vocal lines, its choral plasticity and its orchestral sparkle, the Stabat Mater overflows with beauty: in the highest tradition of baroque piety, magnified by romanticism, the lyric effusion and majestic gravity work to orchestrate a unique and literally miraculous fusion of the profane and the sacred.

Rossini
Stabat Mater 

Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon
Direction Anass Ismat
Solistes lyriques* Kseniia Proshina, Marine Chagnon, Kiup Lee et Aaron Pendleton
Pianistes* Hugo Mathieu et Ramon Theobald

^{* Solistes de l’Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris}