Elijah Concert on April 17 at Clear Lake United Methodist

As many of you know, I am performing the title role in the oratorio "Elijah" at Clear Lake United Methodist Church on April 17th, 7 PM.

Many of you are probably wondering  - what is an oratorio, and will I like it?

An oratorio, in its simplest form, is an unstaged musical drama that uses religious texts to create the subject matter.  For instance, "Elijah" uses the story of the prophet Elijah but also uses texts from other parts of the Old and New Testaments to create its 'script'.  The oratorio originally was invented in the early 1600s as a way for the Catholic Church to use a new form of entertainment, opera, to educate people about Christianity.  Believe it or not, opera was the pop music of the 1600s in Italy, and Catholic composers thought using a popular artform to promote religion was a great idea.  The oratorio's conception isn't that different from the modern idea of contemporary worship in churches.

And yes, you will like it.  Mendelssohn, the composer of Elijah, has  a great talent for making catchy tunes and creating terrific moments of drama.  We actually owe Mendelssohn a huge debt; the oratorio was dying out in the mid-1800s, and with his oratorios "Elijah" and "St. Paul," Mendelssohn reinvigorated a genre.  So come on out!

DWS