Continuing a concert series gala celebrating the reopening of the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square presented Felix Mendelssohn's "Elijah" oratorio in two performances May 11-12 — and they brought a friend to town for the occasion.

Photo by Debra Gehris

With orchestra and choir in background, music director Craig Jessop, left, baritone soloist Bryn Terfel, and boy soprano Zachary Adamson acknowledge audience applause for "Elijah" performance.

Photo by Debra Gehris

With orchestra and choir in background, music director Craig Jessop, left, baritone soloist Bryn Terfel, and boy soprano Zachary Adamson acknowledge audience applause for "Elijah" performance.

Welsh baritone-bass Bryn Terfel sang the title role in a follow-up to his acclaimed appearance three years ago for the choir and orchestra's Christmas concert.

Joining him on stage were soprano Othaloie Graham, mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, tenor Robert Breault and boy soprano Zachary Adamson.

In a pre-concert news conference, Mr. Terfel recalled his yuletide appearance in the Conference Center with the choir and orchestra, saying, "Obviously, it was a blank canvas. I didn't know what to expect. And when I heard them in the first rehearsal that we had, I then knew that it was a very special, monumental beginning of a relationship in a way. And, of course, hence, I've been given (Tabernacle Choir) CDs and recordings every Christmas; they arrive on the doorstep. And I keep in touch."

Identifying it as one of his favorite oratorios, he said he has sung "Elijah" at least 20 times with different choral societies, the first occasion being when he was only 20 years old. This, however, was his first performance of the oratorio in the United States.

It was also his first performance in the Tabernacle. Noting that he opened the new opera house in London and will be opening a set of concert halls in that city in July, he joked, "This could be my future: opening new buildings."

He expressed the hope that the Salt Lake City performance of "Elijah" will be an "appetizer to when the choir comes to tour in Europe and Britain once again. It could be a chance that we might perform it in Birmingham, which is where the first performance was."

Alluding to the Tabernacle Choir's origin in territorial Utah as a group of largely Welsh immigrants who were converts to the Church, Mr. Terfel said the Welsh musical heritage arises from the fact that Wales is a land of working people. "So people, after a hard day's work, didn't go home to put on their televisions or their radios. They joined choirs. And I think that's the element of music that's always in every house in Wales.

"And I have to point out also that the language is something very different. It kind of lends itself to singing."

E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com