Pergolesi's STABAT MATER
4/10 at 4pm
Plainfield Opera House
Tickets and additional information:
https://www.plainfieldoperahousevt.org/2022-concert-series

Lillian Broderick, Soprano
Nessa Rabin, Mezzo-soprano
Alison Cerutti, Piano

Pergolesi's Stabat Mater is a transcendently beautiful and deeply personal musical meditation on suffering and redemption, written by the 26-year-old composer as he lay dying.

The 'Stabat mater' is a 13th-century Latin poem exploring the sorrows of Mary as she watched her son Jesus dying on the cross. The title of the piece comes from the first words of the poem: Stabat mater dolorosa / Iuxta crucem lacrimosa / Dum pendebat Filius (The mother stood in sorrow, weeping beside the cross where her son was hanging).

Pergolesi's Stabat Mater would go on to achieve enormous popularity — it was in fact the most frequently printed musical composition in the 18th century. Pergolesi's compositional approach was known as the style galant - in his Stabat Mater, the pared-back orchestral writing allows his expansive melodies to shine. The music speaks to the strength of humanity to overcome great suffering in times of sorrow.