Ben Lowe

Nathan Granner

Laraine Ann Madden

Jamie Chamberlin Granner

Verdi Chorus

The Verdi Chorus’ 39th season culminates with  A Verdi Puccini Fest, for two performances only at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica on November 12 and 13.  Led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum, the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music for opera chorus. This program, which Ketchum says  includes “some of the most exciting moments from two of the greatest operatic composers who ever lived,” will feature selections from four Verdi operas – I Lombardi, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, and La traviata, and sequences from Puccini’s Turandot, La bohème, Suor Angelica, Tosca, La fanciulla del West, and La rondine.
Conductor Anne Marie Ketchum says, “Both Verdi and Puccini were masters of writing operatic music that was extremely theatrical. Verdi is known for melody, and Puccini is known for dramatically writing for the orchestra with his striking use of colors and rhythm in a rich theatrical style. They are truly deserving of being referred to as two of the greatest opera composers that ever lived.  In terms of the opera chorus, Verdi wrote for the chorus as an actual character and force in what the leading characters were saying and doing, and Puccini wrote musical tones and hues for the chorus to illustrate more deeply the story being told.”