Re: Santo Serviço Television Premiere

[Sam Weiss <SamWeiss...>]

At 10:03 AM 10/9/03, Barry J. Mehler wrote:
>In 1943 the last members of Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagogue choir, Santo 
>Serviço were deported and killed.  Now, exactly 60 years later, Santo 
>Serviço has been re-established...

Also:
At 04:57 PM 8/2/03, I. Oppenheim wrote:
>...the theme of the Agnus Dei from Verdi's Requiem next to
>a transcription of a Halleil theme for Pesach, used by
>the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam.  Both themes are strikingly similar. Do 
>you know whether one of the themes was based on the other, or if both 
>themes have a source in common?

I just had the opportunity to listen to a French recording I got from 
Hatikvah Music, "Musiques de la Synagogue de Bordeaux: Rite Portugais." 
which features several Sephardic cantors and a wonderful male choir with a 
sound not unlike the presentation by Mr. Mehler's choir.  From the musical 
content as well as the liner notes it is clear that there was much 
conscious synagogue composition in the prevailing operatic idiom.  (Judith 
Cohen had referred to this as well.)  And it is quite likely that such 
pieces travelled between the various Portuguese Sephardic communities in 
Europe.  But my main purpose in writing this is to recommend the CD.  It is 
a live recording of a concert on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of 
the Bordeaux Synagogue.   The singing is wonderful, and there is a great 
stylistic and linguistic variety that includes ancient cantillation and 
prayer chants,  Old Spanish tunes, Turkish melodies as well as the 
cosmopolitan arioso styles mentioned earlier.  The interesting thing is 
that it all hangs together beautifully and gives a convincing picture of 
the liturgy that moved those congregations at the end of the 19th 
century.  The recording is a moving document to a nearly destroyed 
tradition and very enjoyable to listen to.

_____________________________________________________________
Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ 

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