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Charis Chamber Voicesdirected bySusanne Peck presents Loved & Lost Works by Purcell and Monteverdi
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Adults: $15, Seniors/Students: $10, Children: free
Call 914-931-6575 for tickets.
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
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Monteverdi: Lamento d'Ariannaand Madrigals from Book IV | ||||||||||||||
Purcell and Monteverdi, two of the greatest geniuses of the Baroque and both brilliant writers for the human voice, will be featured this Saturday by Charis Chamber Voices. In collaboration with art-and-theater historian James Saslow and showcasing Charis's director Susanne Peck in the title role, the group will perform a semi-staged version of Purcell's sparkling miniature opera Dido and Aeneas. The performance will feature renowned soloists Curtis Streetman, Beverly Myers, and Liz Norman, keyboard authority Ed Brewer, and period instruments. Monteverdi's hauntingly beautiful Lamento d'Arianna, written shortly after the death of his wife, along with several of his celebrated madrigals, complete this unique program centered around the human experience of love and loss. According to Ms. Peck, “Monteverdi's madrigal style, which moves in and out of major and minor tonalities with aching suspensions, is at its peak in the Lamento one of the most beautiful cries of love and despair ever uttered in music. The concerts will take place on Saturday, May 1, at the Bedford Presbyterian Church (8 p.m.) and on Saturday, May 8 at the South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry (8 p.m.). Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens. For additional information, please call 914-931-6575.
Charis is an auditioned 24-voice vocal chamber ensemble directed by the versatile solo and chamber singer Susanne Peck. An experienced voice teacher and an accomplished musician with a natural gift for conducting, Ms. Peck's ability to select interesting and harmonically rich music continues to attract singers and music lovers throughout the tri-state region. Photos available upon request.
The program begins with a famous lament from early opera – the powerful Lamento d'Arianna by the great Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643), a transitional figure with one foot in the Renaissance past and the other treading the future. Opera was a new and novel genre in the 1600's and Monteverdi became its first master, revealing its potential and ensuring its survival as an art form.
Written in 1608, Monteverdi's second opera D'Arianna was conceived under painful circumstances - the composer was forced back to work just months after the death of his beloved wife. The Lamento scene is all that survives of this opera, and the fragment beautifully illustrates Monteverdi's genius for conveying drama and human emotion in musical language. The Lamento became popular enough for the composer to reshape it as a five-part madrigal in 1614 and it is this arrangement that will be used for Charis's performance.
In addition, the choir will perform three of Monteverdi's celebrated madrigals: Ecco mormorar l'onde (Lo, murmur the waves) from 1590, Luci serene e chiare (Eyes serene and clear) and Che se tu se' ‘l cor mio (For if you are my heart) both from 1603. These three madrigals illustrate Monteverdi's exquisite abilities to reflect in music the natural word stress, as well as the emotions and imagery evoked by poetry.
Monteverdi's prominent use of dissonance was highly original, and conservative composers criticized him for the use of ‘modern' harmonic inventions such as the downward minor 6th and his free use of chords containing 7ths and 9ths, which became a hallmark of his style. These inventions are a feature of his madrigals. Many of the discordances are made harsher, for example, by Monteverdi's use of double suspensions and by his inclusion of the note of resolution simultaneously with the actual dissonant note. Major and minor tonalities are also presented with an unpredictable freedom not common in the formal chromatic writing of the 16th century, resulting in an unusually rich harmony.
Monteverdi's expressiveness is achieved gracefully and with great unity between the music and the text it illustrates. While not an inventor of the new style, Monteverdi's experiments with and his refinement of new musical ideas made him a principle figure in the movement from the High Renaissance to the new Baroque style and one of the most powerful figures in the history of music.
Born in Cremona, Monteverdi published his first music at the age of 15, followed by two more volumes within the next two years. Initially maestro di cappella at the court of Duke Vincenzo I at Mantua and later at St. Mark's in Venice – a post he retained until his death, Monteverdi composed numerous operas and ballets, along with various vocal and instrumental works for the entertainment of the court.
The program continues with Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and is considered by many to be England's finest native composer. His glittering miniature opera Dido and Aeneas, written about 1689, remains the oldest English operatic work still in performance today. Ironically, Dido was never given a public performance during the composer's lifetime, because opera was not popular in Restoration England, nor was it feasible without substantial subsidy and facilities for training singers.
Dido was Purcell's only opera and is one of the first operas in which all of the words are sung rather than spoken. The complex and subtle rhythms of the vocal lines and the meticulous word underlay reinforce its well-deserved reputation as one of the great musical tragedies.
Written ostensibly for a performance at a fashionable girl's boarding school, connections between the school and the royal court hint that the opera may have been composed for the entertainment of King William III. Though the opera is a miniature, it covers a wide range of emotional expression. The final scene contains Dido's climactic lament “When I am laid in earth,” one of the most beautiful and moving arias in the soprano repertoire.
A gifted child, Purcell wrote his first published composition at the age of 8, while a chorister at the Chapel Royal. At the age of 18, he was appointed composer-in-ordinary for the king's violins. At 20, he was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey, and at the age of 23, became the organist at the Chapel Royal. At his death only 16 years later, the music Purcell composed for the death of Queen Mary a year earlier was played once again at his own funeral. Although recognized as a genius during his lifetime, Purcell's work was neglected after his death until 1878, when a collected edition of his works was begun. The edition was completed in 1965 – 87 years later.