by NZ CATHOLIC staff
A teacher and researcher in New Zealand in the 2000s, Cormac O’Duffy, had the premiere of his oratorio The Wedding Feast of the Lamb before a full church at St John the Evangelist in Philadelphia on September 24, during the World Meeting of Families.
Cormac O’Duffy’s wife Fiona gives him a hug after the successful completion of the premiere of his oratorio, The Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
The work, dedicated to marriage and family, was performed by the Choirs of Villanova Catholic University, soloists from Philadelphia Opera and a youth orchestra.
Mr O’Duffy said he would love to find a New Zealand choral society or school choir to premiere it in New Zealand.
“Marriage is an everlasting design of the Creator for our human condition of loneliness and a means to create
the human race anew,” he said. “It mirrors his own relationship to the Church and how it will be finally celebrated in the everlasting ‘Wedding Feast of the Lamb’.
Fr Denis Wilde, a member of Priests for Life, reviewed the work.
“Appropriately, the performance with Villanova University choruses captured in music the meditative and theological
underpinning of what the massive World Meeting of Families, celebrated at the same time all week in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, is all about: the plan of God as it is given in Scripture.”
He encountered a reassertion of faith in what is good and grace filled, “and I could enjoy that on the faces of both the youthful performers and worldwide assembled audience”.
Any choir interested in staging a premiere of this work in New Zealand should contact Mr O’Duffy (cormacoduffy.weebly.com) or NZ Catholic.
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