You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

St. Olaf Chapel Choir and Orchestra to perform Mendelssohn's Elijah Sunday at oratorio concert

By Amy Gage
April 11, 2002

NORTHFIELD, MINN. - Who'd have imagined that opera could be considered radical? So much so that it was banned centuries ago in England during Lent?

That practice gave birth to the oratorio as we know it - a long, dramatic musical work often on a sacred theme - according to St. Olaf Chapel Choir Director Robert Scholz, who will conduct his 115-voice choir and the St. Olaf Orchestra in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah at Boe Memorial Chapel on Sunday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.

The concert is free and open to the public.

"The word 'oratorio' has been used from the 1600s to the present and taken on different forms," Scholz explains. "We think of it now as an opera without the stage action, but it definitely tells a story."

The story, in this case, is based on the life of Elijah, an Old Testament prophet who caught Mendelssohn's attention as early as 1836. The composer was attracted to the "energy" and "zealotry" of his protagonist - a prophet who punished unbelievers but ultimately proved himself a friend of humanity - and resisted the advice of theologians at the time to tone down the story and write "refreshing" music.

Said Mendelssohn to one such critic: "I would fain see the dramatic element more prominent, as well as more exuberant and defined."

Nine years later, in 1845, Mendelssohn revived his idea of writing an oratorio about Elijah after receiving a commission from the Birmingham Festival in England. He conducted the premiere of Elijah in Birmingham in August 1846.

Soloists for the demanding work - in which arias and choruses "are sometimes distinct and at other times flow into one another," Scholz says - include three St. Olaf College music faculty members: Jim McKeel, baritone; Alison Feldt, soprano; and Anne O'Doyle Adams, mezzo-soprano. Tenor Lawrence Wiliford is a 1999 graduate of the college, and sophomore Katherine Yehling of Glen Ellyn, Ill., plays "the youth."

In the absence of St. Olaf Orchestra conductor Steven Amundson, who is on sabbatical, J. Robert Hanson prepared the 95-member group for the performance. Hanson is conductor emeritus of the Concordia College Band and Orchestra and the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony.

St. Olaf College, a national leader among liberal arts institutions, fosters the development of mind, body and spirit. It is a residential college in Northfield and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college provides personalized instruction and diverse learning environments, with more than two-thirds of its students participating in international studies.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.