Pergolesi's Stabat Mater: Théâtre des Champs‐Elysées

About the Event

A ”hit” and an Italian baroque icon celebrated by a duo well‐accustomed to this demanding repertoire.

Stabat Mater was written in Italy in the 13th century and is one of the best‐known sequences in the Catholic liturgy. This long sixty‐line poem in Latin describes the sufferings of the Virgin at the foot of the cross on which she witnessed her son’s death. In the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance period, composers set this deeply moving text to music. The Virgin became an even more significant object of devotion in the baroque era and the Stabat Mater became ubiquitous in sacred music. The most famous version is by Pergolesi, a composer who died at the age of 26, giving rise to a legend rivalling that of Mozart’s Requiem.