In chorus: The Santa Fe Symphony delivers ‘Operatic Favorites’

The Santa Fe Symphony will be performing a curated show of “Operatic Favorites,” on Sunday, Jan. 18, at The Lensic Performing Arts Center.

“One big motivation for this concert was to give a spotlight to our fantastic chorus,” Guillermo Figueroa, the music director, said.

Rather than typical operas that have a lead singer, “Operatic Favorites” will focus on the background choruses.

“It will be a wonderful concert for everyone to come and enjoy these wonderful choruses that are so famous from these big operas,” Carmen Flórez-Mansi, the choral director, said.

The program includes music from shows like “The Magic Flute,” “Lohengrin” and “Prince Igor,” according to Flórez-Mansi.

Figueroa said the songs will put audiences through every emotion.

“The Mozart chorus is very solemn and reflective,” Figueroa said.

Where the work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is more solemn, he said other songs, like “Polovtsian Dances” from “Prince Igor,” are thrilling and will make the audience want to dance.

The operas included in the show have remained popular among audiences for centuries.

“The choruses have just been so beautifully written that they’ve lasted the test of time,” Flórez-Mansi said.

The chorus will perform the songs in their original languages, with virtual translations for audiences.

Figueroa said, often, the accompanying music is tailored to the words being spoken, making it difficult to translate operas into English while keeping the beat.

“The translator had to make it fit to the rhythm of the music,” Figueroa said. “So that’s why it’s better to have it in the original language, if possible, and have subtitles or something like that, which is what we’re doing.”

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.