Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This Easter Cantata was written by the Neapolitan composer Sergio Rendine (born in 1954). It is a musical setting of the feelings expressed by ordinary people about the most important event in history: the passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The librettist Vincenzo de Vivo has taken texts in dialect and Italian and Rendine has used folk traditions for his music to give us a simple yet expressive cantata with its feet firmly on the ground of Southern Italy and its eyes fixed on Heaven above. The first 45 minutes cover the events of the "Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" and the final 15 minutes celebrate his resurrection. Even if you speak no Italian the music makes the emotions clear to us and a translation is supplied should you wish to follow the texts more closely. There are too many soloists to list in a brief review and all deserve credit for a spellbinding performance at the Cathedral of San Giustino, Chieti, Italy in April 2003. However the true stars are the good folk of Chieti who every year travel from house to house singing Passiontide songs. They provide the choral crowd scenes and the climactic "Exultate Deo" and "Alleluja, Resurrexit" send the shivers down the spine.

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