SKU: GI.G-10666

ISBN 9781622776511. English.

Ms. Foster’s deep faith and musicology are amplified in one another to a profound degree. Her gifts and skills in performance, choir direction and congregational singing are exceptional. The goal of her work, however, is worship, and the songs in this collection easily invite us there. —The Reverend Msgr. Eddie Tolentino, Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, Silver Spring, Maryland As You Go, Tell the World • Go Tell it on the Mountain • God Is a Wonder to My Soul • He Arose / They Crucified My Savior • I Know the Lord Has Laid His Hands on Me • I Will Bless the Lord • Is There Any Room in Your Heart for Jesus? • Jesus • Oh, Freedom • Take Me to the Water • We Are One • What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

SKU: PR.411411640

ISBN 9781491137642. UPC: 680160691098. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis novel by Giorgio Bassani.

Based on Bassani’s 1962 novel, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS dramatizes the true story of a prosperous Jewish family’s disruptions and consequences from state-mandated antisemitism in Italy during World War II. Gordon describes the opera as “romantic, sun-drenched, and cataclysmic, all at the same time.” This dramatically topical and personal grand opera premiered at New York City Opera and National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene to rave reviews in 2022. Chris Ruel wrote in OperaWire, “I have chosen Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie’s THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS as my favorite opera of 2022.”.
At one point, in 2008, I was walking down 72nd Street, and I passed the video store, (this is when there were video stores) and I thought to myself, I wonder if Kevin (my partner) has ever seen The Garden of the Finzi-Continis? which was always one of my favorite movies. My reaction when we watched it that night was unlike any other time I had seen it. I was wrenched, sobbing, inconsolable. My heart felt like the autumn leaves we see blowing through the garden at the end of the movie. It seemed immediately that this had to be my next opera. I called Michael Korie, and we both bought the Bassani novel and read it. We settled on it. It felt clear that we both had a collective story to tell through it.Because this opera is so close to both of our hearts, it is dedicated to our fathers.It is not only that The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a Holocaust story that makes it so resonant for me, though obviously this is no small matter, but the tragedy of people trying to live their lives, or actually living them, their petty disappointments, their heartbreaks, against the backdrop of total catastrophe… that makes it so moving. They cannot possibly imagine what will befall them, but we know… and this makes their every move fascinating and devastating… like watching moths under a glass. It is romantic, sun-drenched and cataclysmic, all at the same time.This is why I had to write it.