Tourists and residents in Teton County are accustomed to seeing spectacular sights. Now, thanks to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, they have been treated to some magnificent sounds.
Presenting concerts Friday evening, Aug. 20, and Saturday evening, Aug. 21, the choir performed with a specially assembled orchestra for the grand finale of the 1993 Grand Teton Music Festival. Performing Hector Berlioz's "Requiem," the singers and players held audiences spellbound.Berlioz's "Requiem" is a Catholic funeral Mass sung in Latin, the words of which move from professions of despair to pronouncements of hope and exultations of praise to the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world."
Choir Director Jerold Ottley turned conducting duties over to Ling Tung, music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival since 1968. Under Tung's direction, the choir and orchestra brought audiences to their feet in especially enthusiastic standing ovations. When applause failed to communicate their response, members of the audiences stamped their feet, whistled and shouted, "Bravo! Bravo!"
As the first notes of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" were sounded, audiences burst into applause.
The 1,000-seat Walk Festival Hall, a wooden structure built especially for the annual Teton music festival, was filled to capacity each evening. Although tickets were $50 each, scores of disappointed would-be concertgoers were turned away. Tickets to other events ranged from $12 to $20.
Audiences were treated to "surround sound" as the choir and orchestra filled the hall's stage, and four brass sections were positioned at the sides of the audience.
Particularly effective was the performance of "Sanctus," which featured a tenor solo by Robert Breault, who sang from the center of the back row of seats in the audience. Breault, assistant professor of voice and director of opera at the University of Utah, performed the Berlioz "Requiem" with the Tabernacle Choir on its concert tour to Israel last December and January. He received thunderous applause at the Teton festival when he was brought on stage at the end of the concert.
The Tabernacle Choir was to complete its visit to Jackson by broadcasting Sunday morning from Walk Festival Hall its weekly CBS network program, "Music and the Spoken Word." Choir members are returning home Sunday afternoon.