Iacomo Carissimi: Historia di Jephte

St. Thomas Aquinas Palo Alto 11.11.11 7:30PM
St. Mark's Episcopal Berkeley 11.12.11 7:30PM
St. Mark's Lutheran San Francisco 11.13.11 4:00PM

Catherine Webster, soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano Jennifer Paulino, soprano Andrew Rader, counter-tenor Paul Elliott, tenor Peter Becker, bass Warren Stewart, violoncello John Lenti, lute Katherine Heater, organ

Though he chose to remain in his relatively modest post at the Jesuit German College in Rome for his entire career and never published any of his works, few composers had more influence on music history than Iacomo Carissimi. Manuscript copies of his cantatas and oratorios circulated widely throughout Europe and his many pupils, notably Marc-Antoine Charpentier, absorbed Carissimi's tonal clarity and sensitivity to words and emotion. Magnificat's program included Carissimi's most famous work Historia di Jephte together with his oratorio Job, the solo cantata Suonerá l'ultima tromba and mid-century Roman instrumental works.

San Francisco Classical Voice Review: Magnificat's Moving Oratorios and Motets

Read More about Carissimi and The Oratorio

Background image detail from Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Return of Jephtah, ca. 1700.