Tag archives: Messiah

Gracias El Mesías
By Richard Mineards   |   April 22, 2025

Fans of Handel’s Messiah were prepared for a fun dual language perspective of the beloved oratorio when Santa Barbara Choral Society performed at Trinity Lutheran Church with a full 21-piece orchestra in both English and Spanish. The new dual language version of Handel’s classic included a new arrangement from the Bach Collegium San Diego conducted […]

Choral Society ‘Resurrects’ Handel’s ‘Messiah’ for Easter, Adds Español
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 15, 2025

Around these parts, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah generally gets performed only in December, in advance of Christmas, frequently as a sing-along or featuring just the famous “Hallelujah” chorus, and always as it was written in English. This weekend, the Santa Barbara Choral Society is rolling out the beloved oratorio. This most familiar of choral pieces […]

Chamber Players Highlight Arias with Amante 
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 4, 2025

April Amante hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunities to sing in Santa Barbara since earning her Doctor of Musical Arts at UCSB in June 2023. There was the concert in May 2024, where the soprano returned to campus for the UCSB Opera Gala, directed by her mentor Isabel Bayrakdarian, the soprano who heads the […]

Production Takes Green Day Musical out of the Box
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 5, 2018

Samantha Eve laughed when I told her that the only time I saw American Idiot, the Broadway musical version of Green Day’s iconic album, I hated it so much I wished I had left. Really loud. A story that was too hard to follow and a little dated, and so much incongruous activity I wasn’t […]