The Ecstasies Above

Glorious back-to-back collaborations that will keep you on the edge of your seat

Prepare to be transported by two virtuosic works for strings and voices from the celebrated George Frideric Handel and award-winning living composer Tarik O’Regan. First, Dixit Dominus showcases Handel at his most Italianate, with exciting ornamentation and rhythmic drive. Several Desert Chorale artists step out of the full ensemble texture for impressive solos throughout the piece. We then continue into O’Regan’s work, The Ecstasies Above, which is a setting of Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “Israfel,” describing an angel whose “heartstrings are a lute, and who possesses the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures.” A chamber orchestra joins the 24 voices of the Chorale for this masterful program filled with musical acrobatics and ethereal soundscapes you won’t forget.

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s Summer Festival is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts. It is also partially funded by the County of Santa Fe Lodgers’ Tax.