Calgary Concert Opera

A Night of Sacred Drama

Suor Angelica and Stabat Mater

September 12-14 2025 · with Calgary Concert Opera Company

Stabat Mater: Barbara King & Kathleen Morrison
Suor Angelica: Alyssa D’Souza

Suor Angelica score reduction: Carlos Foggin

This production brings the Marquis Opera Orchestra together with Calgary Concert Opera Company for an evening of powerful sacred drama, pairing Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Though separated by more than a century and written in very different musical languages, the two works share a profound concern with grief, faith, motherhood, and redemption. Together, they created an evening that moved between the intimate world of the convent and the universal language of sacred lament.

Puccini’s Suor Angelica

Puccini’s one-act opera tells the story of Sister Angelica, a nun whose life in a convent is interrupted by the arrival of her aristocratic family. Years earlier, Angelica had been separated from her young son, and the revelation of his death sets the opera’s devastating final events in motion.

Suor Angelica is among Puccini’s most intimate works. Rather than relying on spectacle, the opera derives much of its power from the extraordinary sensitivity of its orchestration and the emotional lives of its characters.

The convent becomes a world of sound: bells, prayers, conversations among the sisters, and the increasingly urgent orchestral writing that accompanies Angelica’s final moments. The result is a work in which the orchestra is not merely an accompaniment to the singers, but an essential part of the drama.

For Marquis Chamber Orchestra, the production provided an opportunity to explore the remarkable colours and dramatic precision of Puccini’s score while working closely with the singers and creative team of Calgary Concert Opera Company.

Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater

Suor Angelica was preceded by one of the most enduring expressions of sacred grief in Western music: Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Written near the end of Pergolesi’s short life, the work sets the medieval sequence describing the Virgin Mary standing beneath the Cross. Its intimate scoring for two voices and strings creates a striking contrast with the dramatic world of Puccini.

Placed alongside Suor Angelica, however, the connection between the two works becomes particularly poignant. Both centre on the experience of a mother confronted with the loss of her child. In Pergolesi, that grief is expressed through the language of sacred poetry; in Puccini, through the intensely personal language of opera.

The pairing offered two very different perspectives on suffering and faith, while revealing a remarkable emotional continuity between them.

Music in Collaboration

The performance is part of the Marquis Chamber Orchestra’s growing work with Calgary’s artistic community.

Opera is inherently collaborative. An orchestra must respond not only to the score, but also to the singers, the dramatic action, the pacing, and the vision of the production. The relationship between pit and stage requires flexibility, attentiveness, and a shared commitment to serving the drama.

Working with Calgary Concert Opera Company gave Marquis musicians the opportunity to engage with these works as living theatre rather than simply as orchestral repertoire. It was a collaboration between musicians and singers in which the orchestra played an integral role in shaping the dramatic experience.

This kind of collaboration remains central to the work of Marquis. Chamber orchestras are uniquely positioned to work across artistic disciplines—to accompany opera and choral music, collaborate with soloists, and bring orchestral repertoire into spaces and settings where a large symphony orchestra may not be practical.

Looking Back

Two works, separated by more than a century. Two very different approaches to sacred drama. Yet both ultimately lead us toward the same profound human experiences: love, loss, faith, and the hope of redemption.

For Marquis Opera Orchestra, the evening was another step in developing an ensemble built around collaboration—bringing together instrumentalists, singers, and artistic partners to create meaningful performances for audiences throughout Alberta.

We are proud to look back on this production and on the artists who helped bring these extraordinary works to life.