Panama-Berlin venture brings work back to work of art

By Katherine Monahan

There is an added level to appreciating a performance, that comes with knowing just how much work is involved in its presentation. 

Brahms’ “German Requiem” will be performed April 4 at theTeatro National, in a collaboration between the Berliner Capella Chorus, the Coro Polifonico, the Coro Musica Viva, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

This entails about 200 hundred musicians and vocalists performing simultaneously, together for the first time, most of them in a language they don’t understand. 

Berliner Capella Chorus Director Kerstin Behnke will be conducting the entire ensemble.  “I don’t speak Spanish – I’m just learning how to count right now so that I can conduct the orchestra,” she said at a press conference, looking luminous in a rare break between back-to-back rehearsals.

Panamanian vocalists Elisa Troetsch and Ricardo Velasquez are working hard to learn their solos in German.  “The part is at a high level, but I took it,” said Troetsch.  The Panamanian orchestral and choral directors agreed that “It is a challenge, but when will such an opportunity come again?”

The concert is taking place through the efforts of Marie Guillot, wife of the German ambassador, who used to sing with the Berliner Capella chorus. She maintains contact with local musical ventures including Opera Panama, and runs a musical program for children in Chorillo whom she conducted in a performance at Carols by Candlelight in December last year.

Brahms’s “Requiem” was written for a large chorus, and this ensemble, with over 100 German and Panamanian singers, will bring out its intended beauty.  Maestro Jorge Ledzema Bradley, director since 1994 of the National Symphony Orchestra, said “When all the voices rise together, the auditorium rumbles, and the heart rumbles with it.”

All the collaborators expressed a heartfelt, dazzled appreciation of this opportunity to work together and enrich each other musically.

In addition to the Brahms performance at 8 pm on April 4, the Berliner Capella Chorus will give two concerts from their repertoire: April 2, 7:30 pm at the Iglesia San Francisco de la Caleta (Coco del Mar), and April 8, 11am, at Iglesia San José, El Valle de Antón. Attendance at the two events is free but a donation will be welcomed.