Preview – The Full Moon Was Rising

Bruce Reid, The Stranger, October, 1999

Opus 7 — Seattle’s finest vocal ensemble in a program of songs whose texts are inspired by “the beauty and mystery of the night.” A five-century survey that includes Handel, Saint-Säens’ “Calme des nuits,” Wilbye, Brahms’ “Waldesnacht,” Britten, Pärt, Northwest composers Hallock and Asplin (“Phoenix” and “Harmony and Order,” respectively), and the really exciting part of the bill: the Seattle premiere of the work of one of the better new composers I’ve heard, Chen Yi’s “Written on a Rainy Night.” “Piena sorgeva la luna” by the master of conservative 20th-century choral writing, Pizzetti, rounds out the bill.