I’m not entirely sure how to categorise Nicholas Weininger’s All Is Mere Breath.  I guess, essentially it’s an oratorio inspired by the COVID pandemic when “breath” was very much on people’s minds.  It’s written for three soloists; soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone, men’s chorus and instrumental ensemble.  It mostly sets texts from the Old Testament with the soloists singing in English and the chorus in Hebrew.  It concludes with the Hebrew prayer “Oseh Shalom”.  It begins though, in Hebrew, with the opening of Lamentations; “How she sits alone, the city once great with people.” which I guess sums up how many of us felt in 2020. when I remember walking down an utterly deserted Bay Street in the middle of a work day.  The selection of texts really does reflect “desolation” which covers quite a bit of the Old Testament really.

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