Musical Chapel, the Missa Papae Marcelli at La Scala for Caritas Ambrosiana

In 50 years, Caritas Ambrosiana has come a long way. At the behest of the diocesan Church of which it is a vital part, in dialogue with a territory it serves.

Thus, half a century after its establishment (sanctioned by an archiepiscopal decree issued on 18 December 1974), Caritas Ambrosiana is a point of reference in the capital, in the metropolitan area, in the municipalities of the various provinces of the diocese: a body able to cooperate with institutions, businesses, third sector subjects and individual citizens, in order to study poverty, listen and help fragile and vulnerable people, identify and remove the causes of the various forms of social exclusion, orientate many believers and citizens, and in particular young people, to voluntary service, to choices of peace, to paths of justice, to welcoming practices.

The crucial role of Caritas in the Ambrosian territories is the reason that prompted Milan’s civic, cultural and economic institutions to promote an extraordinary moment of celebration and thanksgiving, in view of the 50th anniversary.

The culminating moment will be Sunday, 15 December 2024.

At 5.30 p.m., the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Mario Delpini, will preside a Eucharistic celebration in the Duomo for Caritas workers, managers and volunteers.

At 8.30 p.m., at the Teatro alla Scala, again for Caritas Ambrosiana, there will be an extraordinary concert: the historic ‘premiere’ of the Duomo Musical Chapel on the stage of La Scala, with the performance of the Missa Papae Marcelli, a masterpiece of Renaissance polyphony, composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and conducted by Monsignor Massimo Palombella, Maestro Direttore of the Musical Chapel of the Milan Duomo.

Tickets for the concert (from € 11.10) are on sale from 22 October at this link.

‘For the first time in more than six centuries – comments Monsignor Gianantonio Borgonovo, Archpriest of the Milan Duomo – the Duomo’s Musical Chapel unites its history with that of the Teatro alla Scala, symbol of Milan in the world, with our Cathedral. This union will offer the opportunity not only to listen to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, on the fifth century anniversary of the great composer’s birth, but also to share the emotion of a historic encounter, the result of a fruitful path of musical regeneration and study of our Musical Chapel, entrusted today to the direction of Maestro Direttore Monsignor Massimo Palombella, former Maestro of the Sistine Chapel Choir. It is a proposal to the city, which in turn becomes a gift, thanks to the aims of this special evening, dedicated to the activities of Caritas Ambrosiana, so that our song may not be just ‘resounding bronze’ or ‘tinkling cymbal’ (1 Cor 13:1), but a concrete testimony of authentic charity in truth’.

‘Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli is shrouded in an almost ‘mythological’ understanding,’ explained Monsignor Massimo Palombella, Maestro Direttore of the Musical Chapel of the Milan Duomo. ’It is the first six-voice composition published by Palestrina (in the Second Book of Masses, in 1567) and is the only composition explicitly dedicated to a Pope (Marcello Cervini, who became Pope under the name of Marcellus II and remained on the papal throne for just three weeks, from 9 to 30 April 1555). It is credited with saving polyphony, ensuring the ‘intelligibility of the text’ that had been demanded for polyphonic music by the Council of Trent. The work has been the subject of numerous transcriptions and is in fact perhaps Palestrina’s best-known composition today, judged to be ‘exemplary’ of his writing style. All these elements lend a special and unique charm to this Mass, which has been the subject of many recordings and studies’.