But first, two new items went up today on the website of the always-dying Interpreter Foundation:
Interpreter Radio Show — March 7, 2021
The 7 March 2021 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show featured Neal Rappleye, Jasmine Rappleye, Hales Swift, and Spencer Marsh. In this episode, they discussed a recent Netflix documentary (Murder Among the Mormons) about the convicted forger and killer Mark Hofmann. The second portion of the show was a roundtable discussing the upcoming Come Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants lesson #16 (D&C 37-40). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.
***
With a friend who is a professional music educator (and a former choir director at BYU), my wife and I attended a showing this afternoon of Lamb of God: The Concert Film.
(I was gratified, by the way, to see that the trailer for the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses theatrical film played immediately prior to the feature film itself. If any of you also happen to have seen this — especially outside of Utah — or if you eventually do see it, could you please let me know? I’m curious about how widely the trailer is being shown.)
As a movie, Lamb of God is relatively simple. It is a concert film. No gimmicks. No reenactments. No biblical-looking sets or costumes. Just the conductor, the soloists, a relatively small choir, and an orchestra.
But’s all that was needed. It was quite satisfying.
I won’t be coy: I really, really liked it, and I heartily commend it to you.
The two principal religious holidays of the year are, of course, Christmas and Easter. Many of those who know me will be aware that, much as I love Christmas (and I do like it, very much), if I were somehow forced to choose between the two holidays I would probably feel myself obliged to select Easter as the most significant (though I could argue either way).
I’ve long tried to listen to Handel’s Messiah annually during the Easter season. (Happily, the Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square will be streaming a performance of Messiah this coming Friday evening.) And Robert Cundick’s The Redeemer. (On the late Brother Cundick, see Interpreter’s 25-minute film Robert Cundick: A Sacred Service of Music.). I also like (and recommend) Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ and the 2016 Joseph Fiennes film Risen. There are elements of both with which I disagree, but both are, in my opinion, excellent ways to get one’s mind and heart into the spirit of Easter weekend.
And now, to Handel’s Messiah, Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Cundick’s The Redeemer, and Risen, I add Lamb of God. With the help of excellent musicians and singers and filmmakers, Rob Gardner has created a masterpiece. I’m deeply pleased at this Latter-day Saint contribution to the rich tradition of serious Christian music.
Please consider going to see it.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In