Duke Chapel Presents War Requiem Performance and Lecture Series

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Durham, NC -- Benjamin Britten’s musical “War Requiem” will be presented in Duke Chapel at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19, and 4 p.m. Sunday, April 20.

Rodney Wynkoop will be conducting the Duke Chapel Choir, Choral Society of Durham, Duke Chorale, and Durham Children’s Choir. Tickets are $20 for the general public and free for students, and are available at the Duke Box Office, www.tickets.duke.edu or 684-4444.

The “War Requiem” was written for the 1962 consecration of the new cathedral in Coventry, replacing the one destroyed by bombing raids during World War II. Britten, who was a pacifist, brought together in this piece chilling World War I poetry by Wilfred Owen and the words of the Requiem Mass for the Dead.

“Heard in conjunction with each other, these powerful texts decry the brutality of war, even while lamenting and offering prayers on behalf of those whose lives have been sacrificed in war,” Wynkoop said.

Duke Chapel will also be sponsoring three lectures during the week leading up to the concert. All talks are free of charge and open to the public.

George Gopen, Duke professor of the practice of rhetoric, will lead “An Evening with Wilfred Owen: Life and Poetry” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, in Reynolds Lecture Hall, in Room 0016 of Duke Divinity School’s Westbrook Building. Owen, who served as a soldier in World War I, was killed in action just a week prior to the end of that war.

On Friday, April 18, Philip Rupprecht, Duke associate professor of music, will discuss “Britten and Pacifism” at 4 p.m. in Room 104 of the Biddle Music Building.

For two evenings, Justin Welby, former Sub-Dean and Canon for Reconciliation Ministry at Coventry Cathedral, will lecture on “War and Reconciliation.” The identical talks will begin at 6 p.m. Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19, in the Westbrook Building’s Reynolds Lecture Hall.

“Welby’s lecture will speak about the theological themes of the ‘Requiem,’ the poems of Owen, and the larger topic of reconciliation, especially in the areas of religious conflict,” said Allan Friedman, assistant conductor and administrative coordinator of Chapel Music.