Both works on the program were composed for the ensemble of Mlle de Guise, in whose household Charpentier lived and worked after returning from his studies in Rome with Carissimi. Les Plaisirs de Versailles was inspired by the soirées that Louis XIV held at Versailles in 1682, and it's four scenes celbrates the pleasures of the royal residence with charm and humor. The singers, taking on the roles of “Music”, “Conversation”, “Games, and “Festivities”, contribute to the amusement of the Sun King.
The pastorale La Couronne des Fleurs is an adaptation of the original Prologue to La Malade Imaginaire (1673), which Charpentier arranged for the singers of Mlle de Guise in the mid-1680s. In fact, of the 19 movements only 2 are borrowed (and are extensively recomposed); the rest of the opera is entirely original (though the text is wholly by Molière). Magnificat will perform from editions prepared by Charpentier scholar John Powell.��
The concerts will be Friday, October 3 at 8:00 pm, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Saturday October 4 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday October 5 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.
Magnificat’s season continues with a program of Vespers music for Christmas by Rigatti on the weekend on December 5-7, 2008. Before his untimely death in 1648, Rigatti was already regarded as one of the most talented Italian composers to emerge from the generation after Monteverdi. Rigatti was choirmaster at Udine Cathedral in 1635-7, and later a priest in Venice, singing at St Mark's and teaching singing at one of the Venetian conservatories; in 1646 he directed music for the Patriarch of Venice.
In 1640 and 1641, the Venetian printer Bartolomeo Magni published two magnificent collections of music for Mass and Vespers: Selva morale e spirituale by the venerable Monteverdi and Messa e Salmi by the 23 year old Rigatti. Both collections were dedicated to Hapsburg royalty and both embodied the concertato style, most favored at the time, in which large musical structures are built from a variety of vocal/instrumental combinations. Rigatti’s music is characterized by frequent changes of meter and tempo, virtuso passages for voices and instruments alike, and a striking sensitivity to text and emotion.
The concerts will be Friday, December 5 at 8:00 pm, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Saturday December 6 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday December 7 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.
On the weekend of February 6-8, 2009, Magnificat will return to the music of Heinrich Schütz with a performance of his masterpiece the Musikalisches Exequien. During the bleakest years of the Thirty Years War, Schütz received a commission from a wealthy nobleman to set texts that had been carved onto the patron’s pewter casket. The work was to be performed at the nobleman’s funeral. Schütz the disparate texts, drawn from Scripture and Lutheran chorales, and formed them into a extraordinary three part Requiem.
Recognizing the occasional nature of the composition, Schütz suggested that the work could be used a a paraphrase for the Kyrie and Gloria in a Lutheran Mass for the Feast of Purification. It is in this context that Magnificat will perform Schütz’s work, incorporating chorales, and elements of the liturgy of the Dresden chapel.
The concerts will be Friday, February 6 at 8:00 pm, All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto; Saturday February 7 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday February 8 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.
The season will conclude with performances of Scarlatti’s Venere, Amore, e Ragione, an allegorical serenata written for the entertainment of the Roman nobility at the turn of the 18th Century. The libretto, written by the Roman poet Silvio Stampiglia, features Cupid, who mediates a timeless debate between Venus and Reason. A showcase for Scarlatti’s unparalleled mastery of melody and lyricism, Venere, Amore, e Ragione is a delightful and colorful masterpiece.
The concerts will be Friday, April 3 at 8:00 pm, First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto; Saturday April 4 at 8:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley; and Sunday April 5 at 4:00 pm, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco.
Pre-concert lectures will begin 45 minutes before each performance and are open to all ticket-holders. Subscriptions and single tickets can be purchased here.
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