Little Match Girl Passion

Back when David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion was performed at Carnegie Hall, and won the Pulitzer Prize, a recording was posted for a time on Carnegie's web site. The link I can find is dead, alas, but the composer's own web site has a recording. I remember how much I liked the spare beauty and directness of the piece, and also my deep respect for the performers. It is not an easy thing to sing a cappella, one on a part, for an hour.  I hoped I'd get to hear it live one day.

Through an exceptionally happy combination of circumstances, Little Match Girl Passion is being performed this weekend by the resurrected San Francisco Lyric Opera. Barnaby Palmer conducts; Chip Grant, the genius behind Urban Opera's Dido and Aeneas and Witch of Endor, directs a splendid quartet of singers (Ann Moss, Celeste Winant, Eric Maggay Tuan, and Eugene Brancoveanu).

Full details are here, but performances are March 23, 24, and 25 at ODC Theater in SF. Be there or be square, and may this be the first of many more productions from a great team.