MUSIC FOR LENT AND GOOD FRIDAY

Stabat Mater - The Sorrows of Mary

Stabat Mater, the title of a 13th century Latin hymn, means “the mother was standing.”  The text vividly describes the pain and sorrow of the Virgin Mary.  It is a prayer to the Madonna to share the grief, to suffer with Jesus and for grace of salvation at life's end.

Born in 1710, Giovanni Pergolesi quickly rose to musical prominence as an opera composer but within two years of attaining artistic success, he was confined to a monastery due to a tuberculosis infection where he died at the age of 26.  His setting of the Stabat Mater is a hauntingly beautiful series of arias and duets written for two solo voices and often performed in Lent.

The performance will also include readings from Homer, Akhmatova and other writers as reflections on a mother’s love for her child.

---