Sunday, November 15, 2026
2:00 PM
As the Christmas season approaches, Berlioz offers a beautiful alternative to the familiar holiday oratorios: a deeply moving retelling of the Nativity story, filled with some of the most exquisite music he ever wrote.
At the National Hispanic Cultural Center Journal Theater
In concert – Sung in French
In 1850, Berlioz slipped a gentle chorus into a Paris concert and credited it to “Pierre Ducré,” a 17th-century church composer he’d invented outright. Parisians who couldn’t stand his music were charmed: one declared that “Berlioz could never write a tune so beautiful”. He spent the next four years building a full oratorio around that little piece: L’Enfance du Christ, tracing the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt across three parts and ninety minutes. Most people know only its one famous excerpt, “The Shepherds’ Farewell”; the complete work is rarely performed, which makes hearing the whole of it a special occasion. Plus! The concert begins with Poulenc’s four Christmas Motets.
Featuring John Tiranno, Javier Ortiz, Cecilia Violetta López, and Ashraf Sewailam, the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus and Opera Southwest Orchestra, conducted by Zoe Zeniodi.
