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’s “German Requiem”  which will be perfomed April 4 at 8 pm in the National Theater, is 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, looking luminous in a rare break between back-to-back rehearsals,  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.

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, used to sing with the Berliner Capella chorus. She maintains contact with local musical ventures inclusing 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.