If there is one word Lex de Azevedo would use to describe his "The Life of Christ: Hosanna" oratorio, it would be "moving." Writing the music for the oratorio, which uses only texts from the King James Bible, was a deeply affecting experience, he says.
"The performers, who re-live the events of Easter, are moved by it. Jenny Oaks Baker, George Dyer and the others, they tell me they will do whatever it takes to be there, to be part of it."
But, mostly, he hopes audiences will come away moved by the powerful story of those final events in Christ's life. "We start with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, go on to the Last Supper, the trial, the crucifixion and the resurrection. I think it's the only oratorio that includes it all."
"The Life of Christ: Hosanna" will be presented Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 261 S. 900 East. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $15.
Featured artists include de Azevedo on piano, Baker on violin, Dyer singing the words of Jesus, Greg Pearson as Peter, Melinda Lockwood as Mary Magdalene and Steve Bardsley as Pontius Pilate.
The work also uses two choirs: the Millennium Choir as the front choir and the Valley Choir as the antiphonal choir.
"The way it is set up, it is almost as much opera as it is oratorio," says de Azevedo. "You feel the story. You feel the characters."
"Hosanna" premiered in Jerusalem at the Sherover Theater in September of 2000. "That was an amazing experience," says de Azevedo. "It was a huge undertaking; we spent about a year working on it." That concert brought together about 600 singers from around the United States with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. The program was taped for television and released on PBS.
The work's U.S. premiere was at the Dee Events Center in Ogden in 2001, and it was performed at the Crystal Cathedral in California, as well as in San Diego that year, but has not been presented since.
De Azevedo thought it would be nice to bring it back now. It is a story that reaches out to all Christians, he says. "And we have so few Easter traditions."
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