I don't know Eric Whitacre and this is the first time I heard of an opera
he will premiere in Berlin in July.  Still, on the strength of a brief
work performed today by the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, I have a high
expectation of the opera, even without knowing its title or subject or
even which of Berlin's companies will present it.

Vance George took the audience "inside" the work with an illustrated
mini-lecture and then conducted Whitacre's "i thank You God," a setting
of e.e.  cummings' "little tree" to chorus and soprano (Pamela Sebastian,
in a moving performance).  It is complex, layered, rich, "meaningful"
music - available on the SFS Chorus' eminently timely CD, "Christmas by
the Bay." It is music that makes you sit up and listen, and hope for
great things.

Checking on the Web, I found only this information: Whitacre is 32, a
Juilliard graduate, and he is getting around...  appearances in Florida,
Singapore, and he was (is?) composer-in-resident of the Pacific Chorale,
in Orange County.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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