FEATURE
COMING HOME
In an historic moment, the remains of Perth’s first Catholic Bishop, John Brady, will be laid to rest in St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt on 2 August. The ceremony will bring to an end one chapter in a saga that began in 1842 when then-Fr Brady arrived, leading the first missionaries to Perth and concluded when, as a Bishop, he was spectacularly banished in 1852 from the diocese he created. Although often judged negatively for his governance of the diocese during his time here, historians and researchers are developing their assessment of a figure who still remains largely an enigma as The Record’s BRIDGET SPINKS reports.
Pages 9-12 Archbishop invites all to Brady Ceremony - Page 4
We d n e s d a y, 2 0 J u l y 2 0 11
THE RECORD
Personal Advocacy community rocks
THE
P A R I S H . T H E N AT I O N . T H E W O R L D .
Rossini to soar at historic St Joseph’s
Personal Advocacy is an Archdiocesan ministry working to enable people with intellectual disabilities to live full and valued lives. Community members eagerly await their annual community celebration each year, when all members have an opportunity to meet in a funfilled atmosphere. This year’s celebration was no exception. THROUGH the assistance of many parish and community volunteers, 18 groups operate across metropolitan Perth to help over 100 “friends” with intellectual disabilities live full and valued lives. Our friends with intellectual disabilities have a fabulous way of building community. This year’s PAS celebration was held on Sunday, 10 July 2011 at John XXIII College Exhibition Centre with the theme - Who are You: Red, White or Blue? Preparation for the event began in each group, a couple of weeks before the event. Costumes Please turn to Page 3
Transcendent: Students from the West Australian Acacdemy of Performing Arts in full flight. WAAPA, renowned for the quality of its performances, will be performing Rossini’s Stabat Mater, the Sorrows of Mary, in early August. PHOTO: COURTESY WAAPA
WAAPA brings masterpiece to life at Subiaco Church
A PAS ministry members, including friends and family members, dance at the Community Celebration on 10 July. PHOTOS: COURTESY PAS
THERECORD.COM.AU
FTER composing 39 operas during a spectacularly successful two-decade run, Rossini retired from the field at 38, the wealthiest composer of his time, finally free to hobnob in artistic circles and indulge his passion for fine cuisine. From such evi-
dence, it would not seem that he was predisposed to composing sacred works. Yet he wrote several remarkable sacred scores, the most important being his elegant Stabat Mater, an emotionally translucent score that stands alongside the Verdi Requiem as one of the great operas of the liturgical repertoire. WAAPA is proud to present Rossini’s luminous and uplifting Stabat Mater at St Joseph’s Church in Subiaco on Thursday, 4 and Friday, 5
August as the combined talents of the Faith Court Orchestra and classical vocal department come together to perform this masterpiece. The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts has consistently produced some of the country’s finest operatic talent for the last 30 years. Graduates such as Emma Mathews, Rachelle Durkin, Deborah Rodgers, Fiona Campbell, Duncan Rock, Paul O’Neil, Alexander Lewis and Aldo Di Toro have all forged
successful careers at a national and international level. Given its unusual genesis, it is surprising that the Stabat Mater comes across as such an integrated score. In 1832, the year after he retired from opera, on a trip to Madrid, Rossini was asked by the archdeacon of that city to make a musical setting of the Stabat Mater, the Latin poem about the grieving Virgin Mary at the cross of Jesus. Though reluctant, Rossini accepted the commission and composed the grave and stirring opening movement which anticipates the most exalted moments of the Verdi Requiem, and set the 5th through 9th sections of the text, which has 10 in all. The piece was not ready for a performance that year, and Rossini asked a fellow composer, Giovanni Tadolini, to finish it. When the archdeacon died a few years later, Rossini returned to the work, composing the four missing sections. The whole score was performed with great success in 1842 in Paris. His music is consistently inspired, from the great opening chorus to the terrifying “Inflammatus,” which invokes the Day of Judgement, to the concluding double-fugue chorus. When the curtain came down on this debut performance, the composer’s name “was shouted out amid the applause. The entire work transported the audience: the triumph was complete. Three numbers had to be repeated ... and the audience left the theatre moved and seized by an admiration that won all Paris.” Also: Cathedral concert - Page 3
Thursday, 4 and Friday, 5 August St Joseph’s Catholic Church 3 Salvado Rd, Subiaco Performed by WAAPA Classical Vocal students and the Faith Court Orchestra Music Director Peter Tanfield Tickets $23 Full / $18 Concession/ Friends Tickets: WAAPA Box Office on 9370 6895 or go to waapa.ecu.edu.au