MARCO FRISINA (b.1954): Passio Caeciliae for Soprano, Narrator, Chorus and Orchestra.

Description: Frisina is a Roman Catholic priest and the director of the Vatican's Pastoral Worship Center; he also has 28 film-scoring credits (mostly, not surprisingly, films on religious themes). This certainly makes him a first for Records International. It also guarantees that nothing about this 57-minute cantata on the life of St. Cecilia based on the Passio Sanctae Caeciliae, a text from the late 5th century, is anything but straightforwardly told, conservatively scored in a glowing neo-romantic manner and falling on the ear with grace, beauty and, often enough, ecstatic transcendance. I wonder what Xenakis would have done with this text? Italian texts. Barbara Vignudelli (soprano), David Sebasti (narrator), Coro Musicanova, Nova Amadeus Chamber Orchestra; Flavio Emilio Scogna.