Handel’s Samson – Sydney Philharmonia Choirs 2023

CONTENTS Welcome About the Music About the Composer The Words About the Artists

5 6 8 10 22

Symphony Chorus Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra About Us Our Supporters and Partners

27 28 29 30

HANDEL’S

SAMSON ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

DEBORAH CHEETHAM FRAILLON and MATTHEW DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here† GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Samson – An Oratorio The Words taken from Milton by Newburgh Hamilton

Brett Weymark conductor Alexander Lewis tenor (Samson) Celeste Lazarenko soprano (Israelite Woman and Dalila) Russell Harcourt countertenor (Micah, Samson’s friend) Christopher Richardson bass-baritone (Manoa, Samson’s father) Andrew O’Connor bass (Harapha, a Philistine giant) Stephanie Mooney soprano (A Virgin) Matthew Flood tenor (Messenger) Symphony Chorus Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra Saturday 8 April 2023 at 1pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

† Commissioned for 100 Minutes of New Australian Music 2020 Estimated durations: 90 minutes, 20-minute interval, 75 minutes The performance will conclude at approximately 4pm.

Pre-concert talk by Tom Forrester-Paton at noon in the Northern Foyer, supported by 2MBS Fine Music

Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 June

Ever wanted to sing at the House?

Sing Mahler’s epic ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ with hundreds of others, opera stars and The Sydney Youth Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.

Singers of all abilities welcome. Join us!

‘uniquely joyous and inspirational’ ‘an annual moment of transcendence’ Previous ChorusOz participants

Scan the QR code for more information and to register, or visit bit.ly/ChorusOz23 SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 4

Welcome PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS

One of my first involvements with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs was singing the Messenger in a fine performance of Samson, many moons ago. As a young undergraduate at Sydney University, I was overwhelmed by the intense power of Handel’s dramatic writing, which led to me explore more of his oratorios while studying for my Music degree. Up until that point, I probably only knew Messiah and Israel in Egypt well – but as I started to listen to more and more of Handel’s vocal music (on LPs!), I was struck by not only the sheer amount of repertoire but the quality of it.

In the same way that Shakespeare explores the inner world of characters through text, rhyme and metre, Handel traverses similar territory with his incredible gift of melody, harmony and overall musical architecture.

It is therefore a great pleasure to be bringing one of my favourite Handel masterpieces back to the repertoire of the Symphony Chorus – performing it, much as Handel would have done in his own time, during the Lenten season. It’s a psychological drama – a journey from darkness to light – and, much like Christ’s

Passion story, a discourse on the nature of suffering and its relationship to enlightenment and redemption.

Enjoy Handel’s magnificent Samson!

Brett Weymark OAM Artistic and Music Director

In 2023, Brett Weymark celebrates 20 years as Artistic and Music Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. The 2023 season reflects highlights of his distinguished career and the strengths of the choirs he leads.

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country we rehearse, sing and work, and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. Our voices bring to life the songs of many cultures and countries, from across the ages, in a spirit of sharing, learning and understanding. The ancient customs and cultures of this land inspire us to create harmony – in music and in our society.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 5

Handel’s Samson If you know the story of Samson, you probably know two things: 1. That Delilah seduced him into revealing the secret of his strength – his long hair – and then betrayed him to the Philistines, who cut his hair and blinded him. 2. Later, having regained his strength, he destroys his enemies by bringing down the temple of Dagon with everyone (and himself) inside.

Neither of these things happens on stage in Handel’s oratorio. The seduction, betrayal, shearing and blinding all take place before the action begins (Previously on Samson…).

And we learn of the destruction of the temple, and Samson’s death, secondhand when a Messenger arrives in Act III. The narrative instead follows the last day of Samson’s life in a psychological drama.

The story is biblical, but Handel’s source for the text was Milton’s poem Samson Agonistes. Milton’s model was ancient Greek tragedy, and so he includes words for a chorus, providing the perfect pretext for Handel’s marvellous choral writing.

Samson was premiered in London in the same year as Messiah (1743) and, at first, it enjoyed the greater success – it received eight performances in its first season, compared to Messiah’s three. Messiah may have since overtaken it in popularity, but Samson remains one of Handel’s most admired and thrilling oratorios.

Samson shows Handel at the height of his powers. It is also Handel’s longest oratorio, growing in its final form to at least three-and-a-half hours of music as he added music to suit particular singers. (Much can be excluded, making for a tighter and more effective work.) Its initial success was partly due to the popularity of Handel’s singers.

But, above all, it was the subject matter that appealed to 18th-century audiences.

The Bible, Milton, and Handel Like most Handel oratorios, Samson takes its subject from the Old Testament.

The source of the Samson story is the Book of Judges (Chapters 13–16) – the epic of the hero of a young nation, strong against Israel’s oppressing and occupying neighbour, the Philistine people.

Samson performed amazing feats of strength with his bare hands: fighting a lion, and carrying off the gates of a city. The story has the elements of a solar myth: Samson’s strength lies in the locks of his unshaven hair, as the sun’s is in its rays, and the name “Samson” is connected with the Hebrew word for “sun”.

Samson is a consecrated man of God, whose birth was foretold by an angel. But he is a rough-hewn stone, with a notorious weakness for Philistine women, and meets his nemesis in one of these, Dalila, a sensual temptress who does her patriotic duty by using her wiles to goad Samson into revealing the secret of his strength.

Shorn and weak, he is delivered to his enemies, who blind him and put him to work at the mill with slaves.

Modern fascination with this story has fixed on sex as the source of Samson’s downfall and Dalila has inspired operatic and cinematic melodrama. But for Handel, Samson himself is the centre of the story.

The oratorio is not a narrative of Samson’s heroic deeds (although it refers to some of

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 6

THE MET, NEW YORK

Samson captured by the Philistines (1619). Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)

these) nor of his initial temptation. Instead it presents the final phase of the story: a series of confrontations between the blind Samson and his visitors in Gaza. These are his father Manoa, Dalila (as her name is spelt in the oratorio, with the emphasis on the first syllable), and the giant Philistine champion Harapha. Samson’s state of mind evolves from near-despair to resigned acceptance of God’s will.

The libretto is based on a poem by John Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671). Newburgh Hamilton, who adapted it, had suggested to Handel that this poem would make an ideal oratorio on the model of Handel’s Saul (1739), or his setting of Dryden’s poem Alexander’s Feast (1736). Milton had written Samson Agonistes as a tragedy – modelled on the Greek tragedies of Sophocles and Aeschylus – but one intended to be read rather than acted on the stage.

Milton preserves the unities of time and place, and this is why the one great action, Samson’s pulling down of the temple, is not shown but told by a messenger, in a very lengthy recitative. Like the Greek tragedians, Milton included a chorus, which participates and comments on the action and on Samson’s outlook. It’s this extensive part for chorus that made it ideal for the form of oratorio Handel had evolved.

Milton chose to write Samson Agonistes (“Samson the Champion” or “Samson the Wrestler”) at the end of his own life. The poet was ageing, blind and lonely; as a Puritan he regarded the men brought to power in England by the Restoration as Philistines. Memory tormented him with guilt over his unsatisfactory first marriage, colouring his characterisation of Dalila.

The music of Samson is thus based on words by one of England’s greatest poets, filled out for musical treatment from other

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 7

Milton poems and from the Psalms.

Although this text is one of the finest Handel ever set, the mental agonising of Milton’s Samson poem, more closeted in tone than the heroic narrative of the Book of Judges, was less congenial to him. To forge a more sympathetic libretto, Handel seems to have drawn on his own knowledge of the Bible story. In particular, the Philistines – their choruses invented for Handel by his librettist – are treated much more positively than in Milton’s poem.

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) travelled extensively as a young man, developing a distinctive and lively hybrid of Italian, German and French styles. At 25 he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, but he immediately deferred his appointment with an eight-month leave of absence in London, the hub of the 18thcentury musical world, where his opera Rinaldo was a triumph. A second visit to England was granted with the injunction to return “within reasonable time”, but the musical opportunities in London proved too alluring, and he was still in England in 1714 when his Hanover employer assumed the English throne as George I. Handel’s years in Italy had made him a force to be reckoned with in the opera scene, and this was how he had made his name in London. When the English taste for Italian opera began to fade, he perfected a new musical medium: the English sacred oratorio – effectively an opera without sets, costumes or staging, and emphasising the role of the chorus as “crowd” and commentator. Treating his biblical stories with the same unerring dramatic instinct he’d brought to the opera theatre, Handel delighted audiences with oratorios such as Esther, Israel in Egypt and – composed in the same year as Samson – Messiah.

DETAIL FROM A PORTRAIT OF HANDEL ATTRIBUTED TO BALTHASAR DENNER © NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON

Handel’s Oratorio Style Milton’s didactic Samson Agonistes preaches temperance, anti-feminism, and – above all – submission to destiny and resignation to God’s will. Some of these elements remain in Handel’s adaptation, partly accounting for the oratorio’s popularity with Protestant Englishmen, descendants of the Puritans. They have thought of Samson as a sacred piece, but this is misleading. When Handel, depressed by repeated failures, gave up writing operas and turned to oratorio, he by no means gave up aiming for theatrical effect. So those who have found theological significance in the chorus “Fixed in his everlasting seat”, with its confrontation of Israelites invoking “Jehovah” and Philistines their God “Dagon”, have missed the point. As Winton Dean, the authority on Handel’s oratorios, has pointed out, this is really a political slanging match.

Handel’s oratorios milk stories from the Old Testament for maximum dramatic effect. Samson is a series of confrontations with the title character. Its weaknesses, such as they are, come from Samson being a passive sufferer, in the last phase of his life. His one great act takes place off stage.

With exaggerated respect for Milton the librettist included too much exploration of Samson’s state of mind; cuts in this are sanctioned by Handel’s own practice in his performances.

The Characters and their Music SAMSON Milton’s main theme is Samson’s moral recovery, and his spiritual progress from darkness to light. Handel identifies fully with the words emphasising light, with poignant irony. Samson’s great cry “O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon”, a high spot in English poetry, is wonderfully musicked in the arioso “Total Eclipse” with its striking unaccompanied vocal phrases.

Samson’s spiritual progress is symbolised in the aria he sings before going to his death. “Thus when the sun”, adapted from Milton’s poem “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”, fills out the imagery of the sun eclipsed, then rising.

It does not surprise us that Handel’s Samson is a tenor – the tenor as hero is the stock of Romantic opera. For audiences in 1743, however, this was a novelty, as the leading male parts in Italian Baroque opera were usually castratos or women en travesti.

This was Handel’s first great tenor role, composed for John Beard.

MICAH Samson’s friend and confidant was invented by the librettist to carry much of Milton’s narrative, along with the chorus. As if to make up for missing personality, Handel gives Micah some especially beautiful music, including the famous “Return, O God of hosts”.

MANOA Samson’s father, another rather passive figure, rises to great heights in Act 3. “How willing my paternal love" is an expression, as Winton Dean says, of the fatherly love Handel himself never knew. Manoa also leads off the beautiful ‘requiem’ for Samson that follows the Dead March.

DALILA Milton’s Dalila was softened and humanised, probably at Handel’s request, in this role composed for Catherine Clive, a popular singing-actress. Handel’s is a

seductive, flighty Dalila; we can understand Samson’s attraction, and we can feel her love for Samson is sincere. Dalila and her virgins provide an interlude of almost balletic delicacy in a rather sombre story.

Handel retains Milton’s description of her as a serpent and a hyena. The chorus reflects: To man God’s universal law Gave power to keep the wife in awe, Then shall his life be ne’er dismay’d By female usurpation sway’d.

HARAPHA The braggart bully is a type Handel disliked, and he means us to dislike this braggart bully, in spite of the superb bravura of “Honour and arms”, and the exciting overlapping entries of his duet with Samson, “Go, baffled coward, go”.

OTHERS The final version of Samson was filled out with extra arias for particular singers, Philistine and Israelite men and women.

Most of these are frequently omitted, but one exception is the Israelite Woman who takes part in Samson’s requiem, “Glorious Hero”, and leads off the final rejoicing of the Israelites over Samson’s revenge on his tormentors with the aria “Let the bright Seraphims”, whose already great fame was increased by its performance at a royal wedding. This evocation of rows of angels bearing flaming torches completes the imagery of light that runs through the oratorio.

Postscript Handel’s identification with the story of his Samson gained sad irony when the composer of an oratorio about a blind man, based on the work of a blind poet, became blind himself. No wonder that, when Samson was performed in his last years, Handel and his audiences could not listen to “Total eclipse” without tears.

David Garrett © 2023

The Words ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

CHEETHAM FRAILLON & DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here Tarimi nulay ngalawa yura garrabarra baraya yagu barrabugu ngyiningi ngara ngyiningi berong

Long time here live the people dancing and singing today and tomorrow, your way of knowing your way of belonging

Translated into Gadigal by Matthew Doyle

HANDEL Samson Words by Newburgh Hamilton, after John Milton’s Samson Agonistes

ACT ONE

Chorus PHILISTINES

Before the Prison in Gaza. Samson, the Israelite warrior, has been captured and blinded by the Philistines. He was betrayed by his wife Dalila, who cut off his hair, thus depriving him of his strength.

Awake the trumpet’s lofty sound!

The joyful sacred festival comes round, When Dagon king of all the earth is crown’d.

Symfony (Andante – Allegro) ORCHESTRA

Air PHILISTINE WOMAN

Scene 1 Samson, blind and in chains. Philistine priests are celebrating a festival in honour of their god Dagon.

Ye men of Gaza, hither bring The merry pipe and pleasing string, The solemn hymn, and cheerfuI song; Be Dagon prais’d by ev’ry tongue!

Chorus PHILISTINES

Recitative SAMSON This day, a solemn feast to Dagon held, Relieves me from my task of servile toil; Unwillingly their superstition yields This rest, to breathe heav’n’s air, fresh blowing, pure and sweet.

Awake the trumpet’s lofty sound!

The joyful sacred festival comes round, When Dagon king of all the earth is crown’d.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 10

Recitative SAMSON

SAMSON Welcome, my friends!

Why by an angel was my birth foretold?

If I must die, betray’d and captiv’d thus, the scorn and gaze of foes: O, cruel thought! My griefs find no redress! They inward prey, like gangren’d wounds, immedicable grown.

Scene 2 Enter Micah (Samson’s friend) and Israelites, observing Samson.

Recitative MICAH (APART) O change beyond report, thought, or belief!

See, how he lies with languish’d head, unpropped! Abandon’d, past all hope!

Can this be he? Heroic Samson?

Whom no strength of man, nor fury of the fiercest beast could quell?

Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid?

Ran weaponless on armies clad in iron, Useless the temper’d steel, or coat of mail?

Air MICAH O, mirror of our fickle state!

In birth, in strength, in deeds how great!

From highest glory fall’n so low, Sunk in the deep abyss of woe!

Recitative SAMSON (APART) Whom have I to complain of but myself, Who Heav’n’s great trust could not in silence keep, But weakly to a woman must reveal it!

MICAH (TO SAMSON) Matchless in might!

Once Israel’s glory, now her grief!

We come (thy friends well known) to visit thee!

MICAH Which shall we first bewail, Thy bondage, or lost sight?

SAMSON O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!

O, worse than beggary, old age, or chains!

My very soul in real darkness dwells!

Air SAMSON Total eclipse! No sun, no moon!

All dark amidst the blaze of noon!

O, glorious light! No cheering ray To glad my eyes with welcome day!

Why thus depriv’d Thy prime decree?

Sun, moon, and stars are dark to me!

Chorus ISRAELITES O first created beam, and thou great word!

“Let there be light!” and light was over all, One heav’nly blaze shone round this earthly ball.

To thy dark servant, life by light afford!

Recitative SAMSON Ye see, my friends, how woes enclose me round.

But had I sight, how could I heave my head For shame?

Thus, for a word, or tear, divulge To a false woman God’s most secret gift, And then be sung, or proverb’d for a fool!

MICAH Here comes thy rev’rend sire, old Manoa, With careful steps, and locks as white as down.

SAMSON Alas! Another grief that name awakes.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 11

Scene 3 Samson is visited by his father, Manoa, who is trying to negotiate his release.

Recitative MANOA (ENTERING) Brethren and men of Dan, say, where is my son, Samson, fond Israel’s boast?

Inform my age!

MICAH As signal now in low dejected state, As in the height of pow’r. – See, where he lies!

Accompagnato MANOA O, miserable change! Is this the man, Renown’d afar, the dread of IsraeI’s foes?

Who with an angeI’s strength their armies duell’d, himself an army! – Now unequal match to guard his breast against the coward’s spear!

Recitative MICAH O, ever failing trust in mortal strength!

And O, what not deceivable and vain in man!

Air MANOA Thy glorious deeds inspir’d my tongue, Whilst airs of joy from thence did flow.

To sorrows now I tune my song, And set my harp to notes of woe.

Recitative SAMSON Justly these evils have befalI’n thy son; Sole author I, sole cause!

Accompagnato SAMSON My griefs for this Forbid mine eyes to close, or thoughts to rest.

But now the strife shall end: me overthrown, Dagon presumes to enter lists with God, Who, thus provok’d, will not connive, but rouse his fury soon, and his great name assert; Dagon shall stoop, ere long be quite despoil’d Of all those boasted trophies won on me.

Air SAMSON Why does the God of lsrael sleep?

Arise with dreadful sound, And clouds encompass’d round!

Then shall the heathen hear thy thunder deep.

The tempest of thy wrath now raise, In whirlwinds them pursue, Full fraught with vengeance due, Till shame and trouble all thy foes shall seize!

Recitative MICAH There lies our hope! True prophet may’st thou be, That God may vindicate his glorious name; Nor let us doubt whether God is Lord, or Dagon.

Chorus ISRAELITES Then shall they know, that He whose name Jehovah is alone, O’er all the earth but One, Was ever the Most High, and still the same.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 12

Recitative and Accompagnato MANOA

ACT TWO

For thee, my dearest son, must thou meanwhile lie, thus neglected, in this loathsome plight?

Scene 1

SAMSON It should be so. Why should I live?

Soon shall these orbs to double darkness yield.

My genial spirits droop, my hopes are fled; Nature in me seems weary of herself; My race of glory run, and race of shame: Death, invocated oft, shall end my pains, And lay me gently down with them that rest.

Air MICAH Then long eternity shall greet your bliss; No more of earthly joys, so false and vain!

Joys that are pure, sincerely good, Shall then o’ertake you as a flood: Where truth and peace do ever shine, With love that’s perfectly divine.

Chorus ISRAELITES

Samson, Manoa, Micah and Israelites.

Recitative MANOA Trust yet in God! Thy father’s timely care Shall prosecute the means to free thee hence; Meantime, all healing words from these thy friends admit.

SAMSON My evils hopeless are; one pray’r remains: a speedy death to close my miseries!

MICAH Relieve thy champion, image of thy strength! and turn his labours to a peaceful end.

Air and Chorus MICAH Return, O God of hosts! Behold Thy servant in distress, His mighty griefs redress, Nor by the heathen be it told.

ISRAELITES

Then round about the starry throne Of Him who ever rules alone, Your heav’nly-guided soul shall climb: Of all this earthly grossness quit, With glory crown’d, for ever sit, And triumph over death, and thee, O Time!

To dust his glory they would tread, And number him amongst the dead.

Handel oratorios use two kinds of recitative or “sung speech”: an Accompagnato includes written-out accompanying parts for the strings and is more rhythmical than the freer Recitative, which is accompanied by basso continuo instruments (organ or harpsichord) improvising above a bass line.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 13

Scene 2

SAMSON

Enter Dalila, attended by her Virgins. She is full of remorse for her betrayal of Samson.

How cunningly the sorceress displays Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine!

I to myself was false, ere thou to me; Bitter reproach, but true! The pardon, then, I to my folly give, take thou to thine!

Recitative MICAH But who is this, that so bedeck’d and gay, Comes this way sailing like a stately ship? ’Tis Dalila, thy wife.

SAMSON My wife, my trait’ress? Let her not come near me!

MICAH She stands, and eyes thee fix’d, with head declin’d.

Like a fair flow’r surcharg’d with dew, she weeps; Her words address’d to thee, seem tears dissolv’d, Wetting the borders of her silken veil.

DALILA With doubtful feet, and wav’ring resolution, I come, O Samson! dreading thy displeasure; But conjugal affection led me on, Prevailing over fear and tim’rous doubt, SAMSON Out, thou hyæna! ’Twas malice brought thee here!

These are the arts of women false like thee, To break all vows, repent, deceive, submit, Then with instructed skill again transgress.

DALILA I would not lessen my offence; yet beg to weigh it by itself.

A mutual weakness mutual pardon claims.

Air DALILA With plaintive notes and am’rous moan, Thus coos the turtle left alone.

Like me, averse to each delight, She wears the tedious widow’d night: But when her absent mate returns, With doubled raptures then she burns.

Recitative SAMSON Did love constrain thee? No, ’twas raging lust! Love seeks for love, thy treason sought my hate. In vain you strive to cover shame with shame: Once join’d to me, though judg’d your country’s foe, Parents, and all, were in the husband lost.

Air SAMSON Your charms to ruin led the way, My sense deprav’d, My strength enslavd, As I did love, you did betray.

How great the curse, how hard my fate To pass life’s sea with such a mate!

Recitative DALILA Forgive what’s done, nor think of what’s past cure. From forth this prison-house come home to me, where with redoubled love and nursing care, (to me glad office!) my virgins and myself shall tend about thee to extremest age.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 14

Air, Duet and Chorus DALILA

SAMSON

My faith and truth, O Samson, prove, But hear me, hear the voice of love!

With love no mortal can be cloy’d, All happiness is love enjoy’d.

Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage to tear thee limb from limb.

At distance I forgive: depart with that.

Now triumph in thy falsehood; so farewell!

A VIRGIN

DALILA

Her faith and truth, O Samson, prove, But hear her, hear the voice of love!

Thou art more deaf to pray’rs than winds or seas. Thy anger rages an eternal tempest.

Why should I humbly sue for peace, thus scorn’d, with infamy upon my name denounc’d?

CHORUS OF VIRGINS Her faith and truth, O Samson, prove But hear her, hear the voice of love!

Air DALILA To fleeting pleasures make your court, No moment lose, for life is short!

The present now’s our only time The missing that our only crime.

How charming is domestic ease!

A thousand ways I’ll strive to please.

Life is not lost, though lost your sight; Let other senses taste delight.

Duet DALILA Traitor to love! I’ll sue no more For pardon scorn’d, your threats give o’er!

SAMSON Traitress to love! I’ll hear no more The charmer’s voice, your arts give o’er!

Dalila and her Virgins depart.

Scene 3

Recitative SAMSON

Recitative MICAH

Ne’er think of that! I know thy warbling charms, thy trains, thy wiles, and fair enchanted cup.

Their force is nulI’d; where once I have been caught, I shun the snare.

These chains, this prison-house, I count the house of liberty to thine.

She’s gone! A serpent manifest, her sting Discover’d in the end.

DALILA Let me approach, at least, and touch thy hand.

SAMSON So let her go!

God sent her here to aggravate my folly.

Recitative SAMSON Favour’d of heaven is he, who finds one true. How rarely found! – His way to peace is smooth.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 15

Chorus ISRAELITES

SAMSON

To man God’s universal law Gave pow’r to keep the wife in awe.

Thus shall his life be ne’er dismay’d, By female usurpation sway’d.

Boast not of what thou would’st have done, but do.

HARAPHA The honour certain to have won from thee I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out; To combat with a blind man, I disdain.

Air HARAPHA

INTERVAL

Scene 4 The Philistine giant Harapha arrives – boastful and mocking.

Recitative MICAH No words of peace, no voice enchanting fear, a rougher tongue expect.

Here’s Harapha, I know him by this stride and haughty look.

HARAPHA I come not, Samson, to condole thy chance; I am of Gath, men call me Harapha; Thou know’st me now.

Of thy prodigious might Much have I heard, incredible to me!

Nor less displeas’d, that never in the field We met, to try each other’s deeds of strength. I’d see if thy appearance answers loud report.

Honour and arms scorn such a foe, Though I could end thee at a blow; Poor victory, to conquer thee, Or glory in thy overthrow!

Vanquish a slave that is half slain: So mean a triumph I disdain.

Honour and arms…

Recitative SAMSON Cam’st thou for this, vain boaster?

Yet take heed!

My heels are fetter’d, but my hands are free.

Thou bulk of spirit void! I once again, Blind and in chains, provoke thee to the fight!

HARAPHA O Dagon! Can I hear this insolence To me unus’d, not rend’ring instant death?

Duet

SAMSON The way to know, were not to see, but taste.

HARAPHA Ha! Dost thou then already single me?

I thought that labour and thy chains had tam’d thee. Had fortune brought me to that field of death, where thou wrought’st wonder with an ass’s jaw, I’d left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown.

SAMSON Go, baffled coward, go, Lest vengeance lay thee low, In safety fly my wrath with speed!

HARAPHA Presume not on thy God, Who under foot has trod Thy strength and thee, at greatest need.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 16

Recitative MICAH

ACT THREE

Here lie the proof; if Dagon be thy God, With high devotion invocate his aid, His glory is concern’d. Let him dissolve Those magic spells that gave our hero strength; Then know whose god is God, Dagon, of mortal make, Or that Great One whom Abra’m’s sons adore.

Scene 1 Harapha challenges Samson to show off his strength at the feast of Dagon.

Recitative MICAH More trouble is behind, for Harapha Comes on amain, speed in his steps and look.

SAMSON

Chorus ISRAELITES

I fear him not, nor all his giant brood.

Hear, Jacob’s God, Jehovah, hear!

O, save us, prostrate at thy throne!

Israel depends on thee alone, Save us, and show that thou art near!

Recitative HARAPHA Dagon, arise, attend thy sacred feast!

Thy honour calls, this day admits no rest.

HARAPHA Samson, to thee our lords thus bid me say: This day to Dagon we do sacrifice With triumph, pomp, and games; We know, thy strength surpasses human race; come then, and show some public proof to grace this solemn feast.

SAMSON I am an Hebrew, and our law forbids My presence at their vain religious rites.

Chorus PHILISTINES To song and dance we give the day, Which shows thy universal sway.

Protect us by thy mighty hand.

And sweep this race from out the land!

Chorus with Soloists DALILA AND HER VIRGINS, SAMSON, MICAH, MANOA, HARAPHA AND ISRAELITES Fix’d in his everlasting seat, Jehovah / Great Dagon rules the world in state.

His thunder roars, heav’n shakes, and earth’s aghast, The stars with deep amaze, Remain in stedfast gaze.

Jehovah / Great Dagon is of gods the first and last.

HARAPHA This answer will offend; regard thyself.

SAMSON Myself, my conscience and internal peace!

Am I so broke with servitude, to yield To such absurd commands, to be their fool, And play before their God? – I will not come.

HARAPHA My message, giv’n with speed, brooks no delay.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 17

Air HARAPHA

HARAPHA

Presuming slave, to move their wrath!

For mercy sue, Or vengeance due Dooms in one fatal word thy death!

Consider, ere it be too late, To ward th’unerring shaft of fate.

Recitative MICAH Reflect then, Samson, matters now are strain’d up to the height, whether to hold, or break. He’s gone, whose malice may inflame the lords.

SAMSON Shall I abuse this consecrated gift Of strength, again returning with my hair, By vaunting it in honour to their god And prostituting holy things to idols?

MICAH How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach; ’tis Heav’n alone can save, both us and thee.

Chorus ISRAELITES With thunder arm’d, great God, arise!

Help, Lord, or Israel’s champion dies!

To thy protection this thy servant take, And save, O, save us for thy servant’s sake!

With thunder arm’d…

Samson begins to feel his powers restored.

Recitative and Accompagnato SAMSON Be of good courage, I begin to feel Some inward motions, which do bid me go.

Samson, this second summons send our lords: Haste thee at once; or we shall engines find to move thee, though thou wert a solid rock.

SAMSON Vain were their art if tried, I yield to go, Not through your streets be like a wild beast trail’d.

HARAPHA You thus may win the lords to set you free.

SAMSON In nothing I’ll comply that’s scandalous Or sinful by our law.

Brethren, farewell!

Your kind attendance now, I pray, forbear.

MICAH So may’st thou act as serves His glory best.

SAMSON Let but that spirit (which first rush’d on me In the camp of Dan) inspire me at my need: Then shall I make Jehovah’s glory known!

Their idol gods shall from his presence fly, Scatter’d like sheep before the God of hosts.

Air SAMSON Thus when the sun from’s wat’ry bed All curtain’d with a cloudy red, Pillows his chin upon an orient wave; The wand’ring shadows ghastly pale, All troop to their infernal jail Each fetter’d ghost slips to his sev’ral grave.

MICAH In time thou hast resolv’d, again he comes.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 18

Accompagnato MICAH

MICAH

With might endu’d above the sons of men, Swift as the lightning’s glance His errand execute, And spread His name amongst the heathen round.

Air and Chorus MICAH The Holy One of Israel be thy guide, The Angel of thy birth stand by thy side!

To fame immortal go, Heav’n bids thee strike the blow: The Holy One of Israel is thy guide.

ISRAELITES To fame immortal go Heav’n bids thee strike the blow The Holy One of Israel is thy guide.

Scene 2 Micah, Manoa, and Chorus of Israelites.

Recitative MICAH Old Manoa with youthful steps makes haste To find his son, or bring us some glad news.

They shout and sing, to see their dreaded foe now captive, blind, delighting with his strength.

MANOA Could my inheritance but ransom him, Without my patrimony, having him The richest of my tribe.

MICAH Sons care to nurse Their parents in old age; but you, – your son!

Air MANOA How willing my paternal love The weight to share of filial care, And part of sorrow’s burden prove!

Though wand’ring in the shades of night, Whilst I have eyes he wants no light.

Recitative, Symphony and Chorus MICAH Your hopes of his deliv’ry seem not vain, In which all Israel’s friends participate.

MANOA

MANOA

I know your friendly minds, and —

I come, my brethren, not to seek my son, Who at the feast does play before the lords; But give you part with me, what hopes I have to work his liberty.

The background noise of Philistine revelry is interrupted by a Symphony of Horror and Confusion…

Chorus PHILISTINES, AT A DISTANCE Great Dagon has subdu’d our foe.

And brought their boasted hero low: Sound out his pow’r in notes divine Praise him with mirth, high cheer and wine.

Recitative MANOA

(ORCHESTRA) MANOA Heav’n! What noise!

Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.

CHORUS OF PHILISTINES, AT A DISTANCE Hear us, our God! O, hear our cry!

Death, ruin, falI’n, no help is nigh, O mercy, Heav’n, we sink, we die!

What noise of joy was that? It tore the sky.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 19

Recitative MICAH

MICAH

Noise call you this? An universal groan, As if the world’s inhabitation perish’d!

Blood, death, and ruin, at their utmost point!

The accident was loud, we long to know from whence.

MESSENGER Let me recover breath; it will burst forth.

MANOA

MANOA Ruin indeed! O, they have slain my son!

Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.

MESSENGER

MICAH Thy son is rather slaying them; that cry From slaughter of one foe could not ascend. But see, my friends, One hither speeds, an Hebrew of our tribe.

Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are falI’n.

MANOA Sad? not to us! But now relate by whom.

MESSENGER

Scene 3

By Samson done.

An Israelite messenger arrives.

MANOA

Recitative MESSENGER

The sorrow lessens still, And nigh converts to joy.

Where shall I run, or which way fly the thoughts of this most horrid sight? O countrymen, you’re in this sad event too much concern’d!

O Manoa!

In vain I would refrain; the evil tale Too soon will rudely pierce thy aged ear.

MESSENGER

MANOA Suspense in news is torture, speak them out!

MESSENGER Then take the worst in brief – Samson is dead.

MANOA The worst indeed! My hopes to free him hence are blasted all!

But death, who sets all free, Hath paid his ransom now.

MICAH Yet, ere we give the reins to grief, say first How died he?

Death to life is crown, or shame.

Samson brings down the Philistine temple.

Bolognese School, early 18th century SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 20

MESSENGER

VIRGINS

Unwounded of his enemies he fell, At once he did destroy, and was destroy’d; The edifice, where all were met to see, Upon their heads, and on his own he pulI’d!

Bring the laurels, bring the bays, Strew his hearse, and strew the ways!

MANOA O, lastly overstrong against thyself!

A dreadful way thou took’st to thy revenge: Glorious, yet dearly bought!

Air and Chorus MICAH

ISRAELITE WOMAN May ev’ry hero fall like thee, Through sorrow to felicity!

VIRGINS Bring the laurels, bring the bays Strew his hearse and strew the ways!

ISRAELITES

Ye sons of lsrael, now lament, Your spear is broke, your bow’s unbent.

Your glory’s fled, Amongst the dead Great Samson lies, For ever, ever, clos’d his eyes!

ISRAELITES Weep, Israel, weep a louder strain; Samson, your strength, your hero, is slain!

Dead March ORCHESTRA Enter Israelites with the body of Samson.

Chorus with Soloists MANOA Glorious hero, may thy grave Peace and honour ever have; After all thy pain and woes Rest eternal, sweet repose!

ISRAELITES Glorious hero, may thy grave Peace and honour ever have!

Glorious hero, may thy grave Peace and honour ever have, After all thy pains and woes, Rest eternal, sweet repose!

Recitative MANOA Come, come! No time for lamentation now, No cause for grief; Samson like Samson fell, Both life and death heroic. To his foes Ruin is left; to him eternal fame.

Air and Chorus ISRAELITE WOMAN Let the bright seraphims in burning row, Their loud, uplifted angel trumpets blow.

Let the cherubic host, in tuneful choirs, Touch their immortal harps with golden wires.

ISRAELITES Let their celestial concerts all unite, Ever to sound his praise in endless blaze of light.

ISRAELITE WOMAN The virgins too shall on their feastful days Visit his tomb with flow’rs, and there bewail His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 21

PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS

About the Artists

Brett Weymark conductor One of Australia’s foremost choral conductors, Brett Weymark OAM is celebrating his 20th season with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

Appointed Artistic and Music Director in 2003, he has conducted the Choirs throughout Australia as well as internationally. He has also conducted the Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland, West Australian and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Sydney Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as productions for WAAPA, Pacific Opera and OzOpera, and he has performed with Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Song Company and Musica Viva.

He studied singing and conducting at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, continuing his conducting studies with Simon Halsey, Vance George, Daniel Barenboim and John Eliot Gardiner, amongst others.

His repertoire at SPC has included Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, the Mozart, Verdi, Duruflé and Fauré requiems, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He champions Australian composers, and has premiered works by Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin, John Peterson, Daniel Walker, Rosalind Page, Peter Sculthorpe, Andrew Schultz and Ross Edwards. In 2011 he premiered his own work Brighton to Bondi with the Festival Chorus. He has also conducted musical theatre programs including Bernstein’s Candide, which won

multiple BroadwayWorld Sydney awards.

Under his direction, SPC received a Helpmann Award for Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms, directed by Peter Sellars, and was nominated for a Limelight Award for Purcell’s King Arthur.

He was chorus master for the Adelaide Festival productions of Saul (2017), Hamlet (2018) and Requiem (2020), and he has prepared choirs for Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Simon Rattle. He has recorded for the ABC and conducted film scores for Happy Feet, Mad Max Fury Road and Australia.

Recent conducting highlights include Sweeney Todd (West Australian Opera), Jandamarra by Paul Stanhope and Steve Hawke (SSO), Michael Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time (Adelaide Festival) and Carousel (State Opera South Australia).

In 2001 he was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal and in 2021 the Medal of the Order of Australia.

Brett Weymark is passionate about singing and the role music plays in both the wellbeing of individuals and the health and vitality of a community’s culture. He believes music can transform lives and should be accessible to all.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 22

PHOTO: LOUIS DILLON SAVAGE

PHOTO: AMELIA DOWD

Alexander Lewis tenor

Celeste Lazarenko soprano

Alexander Lewis has performed around the world in both opera and musical theatre. His operatic performances include: Laca in Jenůfa (Santa Fe Opera), Count Danilo in The Merry Widow (Opera Australia, West Australian Opera, State Opera South Australia); John Wormley in Crossing (The American Repertory Theatre Boston, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival), the title role in The Nose (Opera Australia, Komische Oper Berlin, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera), Hoffmann in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Gritsko in The Fair at Sorochyntsi (Komische Oper Berlin), Tamino in The Magic Flute (West Australian Opera), Flask in Moby Dick (Washington National Opera), and St Brioche in The Merry Widow and Borsa in Rigoletto (Metropolitan Opera).

His musical theatre credits include Anatoly in the Australian tour of Chess, Tony in West Side Story (Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, Helpmann Award Nomination), Tateh in Ragtime (The Production Company), George in Sunday In the Park with George (Victorian Opera Company), Enoch Snow in Carousel (Houston Grand Opera), Raoul, and Phantom understudy, in The Phantom of the Opera (The Really Useful Group); Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd (Opera Australia), Frederick Barrett in Titanic (Seabiscuit Productions), and Candide for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

In 2022, he sang in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Musical Theatre Gala and Messiah (Perth Symphonic Chorus). Next month he will also appear for SPC in The Golden Age of Broadway.

A graduate of both the Guildhall School in London and the Sydney Conservatorium Opera School, Celeste Lazarenko has appeared with English National Opera, Opera North, Opéra Angers-Nantes, Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Pinchgut Opera and Sydney Chamber Opera. She has received many prizes and awards, in Australia and abroad, and was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition in London.

In 2023 her engagements include Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) for Opera Australia, Ilia (Idomeneo) for Victorian Opera and La Voix humaine for Sydney Chamber Opera.

In Australia, her roles have included the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for Victorian Opera, Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia for Sydney Chamber Opera, and Télaïre (Rameau’s Castor et Pollux), Medea (Cavalli’s Giasone), and Leonore (André Grétry’s L’Amant jaloux) for Pinchgut Opera. In addition to Donna Anna, her work with Opera Australia includes Pamina and Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro on tour, Sylviane in The Merry Widow, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and the Fiji Woman in Whiteley (Kats-Chernin).

On the concert platform, she has appeared with the Queensland, Sydney and New Zealand symphony orchestras, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney University Graduate Choir.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 23

PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER HAYLES

DONATE NOW Voice. Energy. Joy. Our 2023 season offers audiences and performers the gift of music in all its guises – bringing people together in community.

But box office income alone is not enough to sustain our efforts. We need your help and every gift we receive makes a real difference.

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs today. sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/donate or call (02) 8274 6200

Russell Harcourt countertenor Russell Harcourt is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he furthered his studies with Yvonne Kenny, was an Associate of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, studied part-time at the National Opera Studio, and became an alumnus of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. He is now a member of the Sydney Conservatorium’s vocal faculty.

His recent and upcoming engagements include Andronico (Giustino) for Pinchgut Opera, Ruggiero (Alcina) with National Opera Canberra, the title role in Handel’s Oreste for the Royal Opera House, at Wilton’s Music Hall, Evanco (Rodrigo) for Göttingen International Handel Festival, Roberto (Griselda) for Irish National Opera, John Adams’ Gospel According to the Other Mary at Bonn Opera; Bach’s B-minor Mass with Florilegium; Pisandro (Return of Ulysses) for Iford Arts Festival; Narciso (Agrippina) for English Touring Opera; Nerone (Agrippina) for Brisbane Baroque (receiving a Helpmann Award nomination); and Andronico (Bajazet), Megabise (Artaxerxes) and Corrado (Griselda) for Pinchgut Opera. He has also sung Messiah with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Bach Akademie Australia. Last year he appeared with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in Handel’s Coronation Anthems and Haydn’s Nelson Mass.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 24

PHOTO: JARED LIEBOWITZ

PHOTO: DANIEL SOMMER

Christopher Richardson bass-baritone

Andrew O’Connor bass

Christopher Richardson is a graduate of the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, and the recipient of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Award and the Frances MacEachron Award at the Oratorio Society of New York’s Solo Competition at Carnegie Hall.

He has appeared with Pinchgut Opera, Opera Queensland, Handel in the Theatre, Canberra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Perth Symphonic Chorus, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society, Festival of Voices Hobart, Canberra Choral Society, the Allegri Ensemble, Hobart, and the Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and Tasmanian symphony orchestras.

His most recent performances include Brahms’s A German Requiem as guest soloist with The Song Company, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and Messiah at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis. Last year he sang Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Handel’s Coronation Anthems with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

He has also been invited to appear in The Enchanted Island (10 Days on the Island Festival, Tasmania), The Genius of J.S. Bach (Melbourne Recital Centre); Beethoven’s Mass in C (Victoria Chorale), and Fauré’s Requiem (Perth Symphonic Chorus). He features on the CD of Calvin Bowman songs, Real and Right and True.

As a performer and educator, Perth-born Andrew O’Connor is versed in a wide variety of styles and genres. For more than a decade, he has developed a busy freelance career encompassing opera, concert performances, vocal chamber music, and the classroom.

He performs regularly as a soloist and in ensemble, appearing with many of Australia’s finest music organisations. He is a Lay Clerk with St Mary’s Cathedral Choir in Sydney, was an Associate Artist with Pacific Opera in 2019, and was the winner of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Competition 2020. In 2015– 2019 he was a core member of The Song Company, and in 2021 became a founding member of AVÉ, the Australian Vocal Ensemble. Last year he made his international debut with The VOCES8 Foundation.

Notable 2023 engagements include the roles of Polimante and Erasto in Legrenzi’s Giustino and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri for Pinchgut Opera; a range of festival, touring, education, and recording projects for AVÉ; Bach’s St John Passion with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra; Songs of Rosa Mystica with The Song Company; and projects with Bach Akademie Australia, Moorambilla Voices and more.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 25

Stephanie Mooney soprano

Matthew Flood tenor

Stephanie Mooney studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and is also a graduate of the University College Cork with a degree in Arts and Music, majoring in voice. She has performed as a soloist throughout Ireland, including singing as Siébel in Gounod’s Faust and Flora in Britten’s Turn of the Screw. After arriving in Sydney, she continued her vocal studies with Andrew Dalton and Stephen Yalouris. For several years, she has performed the Irish National Anthem for the annual St Patrick’s Day Festival in Hyde Park. She has sung in the chorus for Beethoven’s Fidelio (The Very Small Opera Company) and in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (Opera Bites). She has also performed with the Mosman Musical Society.

Stephanie Mooney has been a member of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Chamber Singers since 2019.

Matthew Flood trained with Hartley Newnham and Vivien Hamilton while studying Arts and Law at the University of Melbourne. He is an experienced choral singer and soloist, currently singing with the Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers and the Sydney Chamber Choir.

From 2019 to 2022, he sang with the WASO Chorus, where he was the tenor soloist in their concert in Perth’s St Mary’s Cathedral and the Kalbarri Skywalk in 2021 and 2022.

Previously he sang in the United Kingdom with the London Symphony Chorus (2009– 2019) and the New London Chamber Choir (2002–2008). Highlights during this time included concerts in the Salle Pleyel and the Philharmonie de Paris, the Lincoln Centre in New York, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall in London. He founded the a cappella sextet Pablo, recording an eponymous CD with Move Records, and appearing at venues and festivals including the Apollo Bay Music Festival in Victoria.

He has also sung with the Ormond College Choir in Melbourne (1993–1998) and the Troubadours, an early music octet (1996– 1998). As principal tenor at Scots Church, Melbourne, he sang the tenor solos in Bach’s Magnificat and Handel’s Messiah. This is his Sydney Opera House debut.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 26

Symphony Chorus Brett Weymark Artistic and Music Director Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master and Principal Rehearsal Pianist SOPRANOS Saskia Albers Veronica Alfano Julie Bangura Georgina Bitcon Anne Blake Olga Bodrova Catherine Bryant Anne Cooke Nat Crane Pam Cunningham Rouna Daley Vanessa Downing Rachel Evans Susan Farrell Ann-Louise Felton Rebecca Fitzpatrick Jehane Ghabrial Judith Gorry Helen Huang Sue Justice Yvette Leonard Lindy McMahon Bernadette Mitchell Stephanie Mormanis Merryl Neille Ruth Jessica Ongkowijoyo Nathalie O’Toole Dympna Paterson Alexandra Peacock Jolanda Rotteveel Allison Rowlands Joanna Warren Genni Wetherell

ALTOS Leonie Aitken Lisa Anderson Meaghan Backhouse Debra Baker Jennifer Bradford Grace Chen Gillian DownesMorgan Julie Dowsley Claire Duffy Jan Fawke Susan Gandy Penny Gay Jennifer Gillman Jenny Harry Kathryn Harwood Margaret Hofman Kirsti Horst Janice McKeand Clara Mazzone Alyson Moore Penelope Morris Pepe Newton Wendy Ng Marj O’Callaghan Nadia Okumushoglu Jonquil Ritter Virginia Rowlands Jenni Schofield Jan Shaw Meg Shaw Marianna Wong

TENORS Daniel Comarmond Malcolm Day Robert Elliott Blake Garner Tony Green Nick Hazell Michael Kertesz James Lane Kevin Lee Nicholas Tong George Watkins Christopher Whitfeld Will Willitts Isaac Wong Mark Wong

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 27

BASSES Jock Baird Peter Callaghan Julian Coghlan Paul Couvret Philip Crenigan Robert Cunningham James Devenish Matthew Ellison David Fisher Tom Forrester-Paton Robert Green Derek Hodgkins Peter Hogg David Jacobs Mark McGoldrick Brendan Nicholson Ian Pettener Peter Poole Raymond Ross Michael Ryan Peter Templeton Ben Waters Arthur Winckler Jonathan Wood

Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra FIRST VIOLINS Fiona Ziegler Concertmaster Michele O’Young Matthew Bruce Karina Hollands Monique Irik Wendy Kong Julia Russoniello James Tarbotton SECOND VIOLINS Léone Ziegler Samantha Boston Meg Cohen Bridget Crouch Emma Hayes Heloise Meisel Narine Melconian Denisa Smeu Kirileanu VIOLAS Nicole Forsyth Darius Kaperonis Suzie Kim Georgina Price Mariette Reefman Cecile Ross CELLOS Anthea Cottee Anita Gluyas Rosemary Quinn Annika Stagg

DOUBLE BASSES Helen Cosgrove Will Hansen FLUTES Rosamund Plummer Jessica Lee

HARPSICHORD Nathan Cox ORGAN David Drury Bold = Principal

OBOES Alex Fontaine Madeleine Randall BASSOONS Victoria Grant Hayden Burge FRENCH HORNS Michael Dixon Annalisa Solinas TRUMPETS Leanne Sullivan Alex Bieri TIMPANI Brian Nixon

Continuo organ by Henk Klop, Garderen, The Netherlands, 2003 Italian harpsichord after Grimaldi by Carey Beebe, Sydney, 1990 Early keyboards supplied and prepared by Carey Beebe

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 28

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Sydney Philharmonia Choirs presents the art of choral singing at the highest standard, and develops the talents of those with a passion for singing, in Sydney and beyond. Founded in 1920, it has become Australia’s finest choral organisation and is a Resident Company of the Sydney Opera House.

Led by Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark OAM and Associate Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs comprises three auditioned and three community choirs that perform repertoire from choral classics to musical theatre and commissions by Australian composers. SPC presents its own annual concert season as well as collaborating with leading conductors, soloists and orchestras in Australia and overseas. In 2002, SPC was the first Australian choir to sing at the BBC Proms (Mahler’s Symphony No.8 under Sir Simon Rattle), returning again in 2010 to celebrate its 90th anniversary. The Choirs perform in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s season every year, as they have done for more than 80 years. SPC also presents community singing events throughout the year – Chorus Oz (the annual Big Sing), Big Heart Sing at the Sydney Opera House and choral workshops throughout Sydney and NSW. 2020 was Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ centenary and saw the realisation of the 100 Minutes of New Australian Music project, featuring commissioned works by composers including Elena Kats-Chernin, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon and Brett Dean. In 2022 the Choirs took part in the reopening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, performing Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and in 2023, Brett Weymark celebrates his 20th anniversary as Artistic Director. sydneyphilharmonia

VICE-REGAL PATRONS The Hon. Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales and Mr Dennis Wilson VICE PATRONS Prof. the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO Lauris Elms AM OBE DMus (Syd) AMBASSADOR FOR SINGING Yvonne Kenny AM BOARD Jacqui Wilkins Chair Tracey Jordan President Andrea Hoole Treasurer Ian Bennett, Katie Blake, Bill Napier, Georgia Rivers STAFF Fiona Hulton Executive Director Brett Weymark OAM Artistic & Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master & Principal Rehearsal Pianist Mark Robinson Artistic Operations Manager Meagan Fitzpatrick Choirs Manager Heather Carr, Mel Penicka-Smith, Eva Tarbox, Kirsty Walker Choir Support & Administrators Susan Gandy Orchestra Coordinator Simon Crossley-Meates Marketing Manager Naomi Hamer Office & Box Office Administrator Sarah Howell Philanthropy Associate John Liebmann Finance Manager PROGRAM CREDITS Yvonne Frindle Editor and Design Tone Bullen, Smörgåsbord Cover Artwork Immij NSW Printer

sydneyphilharmonia1

sydney.philharmonia

Wharf 4/5, 15 Hickson Road, Dawes Point | (02) 8274 6200 | hello@sydneyphilharmonia.com.au sydneyphilharmonia.com.au SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2023 • 29

Our Supporters Sydney Philharmonia Choirs gratefully acknowledge the vision, commitment and generosity of our supporters.

$40,000+

CENTENARY CIRCLE

$1,000 – $2,499

Anonymous (1)

Robert Albert AO and Libby Albert Prof. the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO Ian and Claire Bennett Christine Bishop Katie Blake and Michael Jackson David and Halina Brett Olivier Chretien Nathalie Deeson Ruth Edenborough Prof. Jenny Edwards David and Sue Ellyard Kate Foot Dr Carolyn Lowry OAM and Peter Lowry OAM Peter and Lisa Macqueen The late Dr John O’Brien The late Rosalind Strong AM and the late Antony Strong Kay Vernon Sara Watts Anthony and Annie Whealy Jacqui Wilkins Anonymous (1)

Jock Baird – in memoriam Annette McClure James and Ariella Cox Rouna Daley Julie and Bill Dowsley Prof. Jenny Edwards Fiona Joneshart Lilly Krienbuhl Dr Veronica Lambert M and D Langford Rachel Maiden – in memory of Tony Maiden Jolanta Masojada Helen Meddings Jeffrey Mellefont In memory of Helen Pedersen Georgia Rivers Félicité Ross Joanna Sutherland Kay Vernon Sara Watts Marianna Wong Anonymous (1)

$10,000 – $39,000 Robert Albert AO and Libby Albert Justice François Kunc and Felicity Rourke Anonymous (1)

$5,000 – $9,999 Stephen and Jennifer Cook Ruth Edenborough Diane Hill Dr David and Sarah Howell Iphygenia Kallinikos John Lamble Foundation Macpherson Family Jacqueline Rowlands Anonymous (3)

$2,500 – $4,999 Lynette Baker Susan Barrett Christine Bishop Nathalie Deeson – in memory of Brian Deeson Warren Green R&J Perry Family Foundation Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Supper Club Jean Taylor

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

Your gift, of any size, would make a vital contribution to ensuring our future. sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/donate

Donations to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs are recognised for 12 months from the date of donation.

Supporters listed here are current as at March 2023. Donations of $500 and above are listed on our website and in our concert program books.

Thank you We applaud the generous involvement of our partners in supporting Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. $500 – $999 Tel Asiado Carole Bailey C A Bessemer Sue Bowring Julian Coghlan and Andrea Beattie Ian Connolly Patricia Curotta James Devenish Jane Diamond Robert Green Vesna Hatezic Shirley Hofman David Jacobs Maggie McKelvey Jeffrey Mellefont Bernadette Mitchell Robert Mitchell Chris Moore Dimitry Moraitis and Peter Morgan Mary Mortimer and Donald Denoon William Napier Anna Pender Valerie Rendle Jonquil Ritter Paul Roper Meg Shaw Ernestine de Vries Anonymous (2) We also thank our donors who contribute up to $500. Every gift makes a difference to what we are able to achieve.

NEXT AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE THE GOLDEN AGE OF

BROADWAY

All the classic favourites in a dazzling tribute to the great Broadway musicals.

Saturday 6 May | 7pm

VERDI’S REQUIEM Immerse yourself in the operatic drama and awesome splendour of Verdi’s mass for the dead.

Saturday 20 May | 2pm