The New Zealand Combined Choir and Orchestra Trust organises an Annual Summer School of Music at The Teapot Valley residential centre. It invites international conductors and this year Brian Kay will direct the choir of 90 singers to perform two Gloria's by Puccini and Vivaldi respectively. The are both fantastic works full of joyful moments and magical music.
Puccini, the great opera writer (La Bohème, Madam Butterfly & Tosca), composes as if for the theatre and the music is bold and magnificent. He wrote his Gloria when he was aged18.
Vivaldi worked as a virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric in the Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice. This was an institution where orphans received instruction - the boys in trades and the girls in music. His Gloria is one of the most popular classical choral works in the concert repertoire.
NZ Combined Choir
