The Pope’s choir will be performing at St John’s Co-Cathedral next week in a rare outing from Vatican City.

The Cappella Musical Pontificia Sistina choir, commonly referred to as the Pope’s personal choir, will perform a concert entitled Exultate Deo on Friday.

The event organisers said this was a unique opportunity to attend a performance of the “world’s oldest choir”.

The repertoire for the concert will consist of musical compositions by 16th-century European composers, including Misere by Gregorio Allegri and other musical pieces by Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomas Luis de Victoria, as well as Gregorian chants.

The choir was established in the first centuries of the Church and consists of 35 boy choristers and 20 adult singers (11 tenors and nine basses).

Tickets for the concert, organised by the Archdiocese of Malta by courtesy of the Victoria International Arts Festival, can be purchased online on www.teatrumanoel.com.mt. Discounts apply for disabled persons, elderly citizens and students.

A number of free tickets have already been provided by the Archdiocese to children from disadvantaged social backgrounds.

The organisers remind those attending to refrain from wearing stiletto and narrow heels to St John’s Co-Cathedral.