MUSIC

Coro Allegro, under Artistic Director David Hodgkins, will perform James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados and Gustav Holst's Hymn of Jesus, Sunday March 1, 2009 at 3PM, Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury Street, Boston. In Cantos Sagrados, contemporary Scottish composer MacMillan has created a hauntingly beautiful work that portrays the anguish of a Latin American community suffering the disappearances of political prisoners. The libretto is built on poems by Chilean human rights activist Ariel Dorfman, interspersed with a prayer by Ana Maria Mendoza and juxtaposed with Latin sacred texts depicting the Crucifixion. Holst's rich and complex Hymn of Jesus features a double chorus, as Coro Allegro so effectively employed in its recent performance of Poulenc's Figure Humaine. Guest performers include organist Michael Kleinschmidt and the Boston City Singers, directed by Jane Money.