John Adams El Niño (Nativity Oratorio)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Kate Royal soprano
Kelley O’Connor mezzo soprano
Matthew Rose bass
Daniel Bubeck countertenor
Brian Cummings countertenor
Steven Rickards countertenor
London Philharmonic Choir
Mark Grey sound designer

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra commissioned John Adams to write a work for chorus and orchestra in the late 1990s, at about the same time as the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris asked for an opera from him. Adams’s idea to combine the two requests in an oratorio that could be staged resulted in what many believe is his finest work yet. El Niño tells a refracted version of the Nativity story transplanted to Hispanic America, presenting a feast of allusions in musical, theatrical and visual form – as joyful and rousing as Handel’s Messiah (its inspiration), as intense and direct as the Latin American texts that it uses, and as moving and sincere as anything Adams has written.

Free pre-concert event | 5.00pm–5.45pm | The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall
The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s creative ensemble for 15–19 year-olds, The Band, performs its latest set – new music inspired by John Adams’s El Niño and its source texts.

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Hear it first!
Select a link below to listen to selected movements from this concert (Flash Player opens in a new window).

Adams: El Nino - Part I: I Sing of a Maiden
Adams: El Nino - Part I: Magnificat
Adams: El Nino - Part I: The Christmas Star
Adams: El Nino - Part II: Pues mi Dios ha nacido a penar
Adams: El Nino - Part II: In the Day of the Great Slaughter
Adams: El Nino - Part II: A Palm Tree

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