Fall in love, fake it, get over it – ‘Love in Venice’ with the song company
The Song Company has launched its 2012 national season and comes to Sydney this week on Wednesday March 14th bringing us Love in Venice featuring the music of just two Venetian composers – Claudio Monteverdi and Adriano Banchieri.
Roland Peelman, artistic director of The Song Company has selected nine beautiful and sensual Erotic Madrigals by Monteverdi and in contrast, Banchieri’s 1623 comic madrigal opera Barca diVenezia per Padova (Boat from Venice to Padua), a hilarious piece of early music theatre for 5 voices in which the singers flit between a set of dubious commedia dell’arte characters who share an encounter on a small boat. Monteverdi is well known and loved for his passion and poignancy; Banchieri’s is music is less familiar, however he did entertain a reputation as a master of musical humour and wit. Peelman will share his musical insights with the audience during the pre-concert talk commencing at 7 pm.
Roland Peelman offers a whiff of what is to come in the concert: “It is one of the most entertaining examples of early musical comedy” he explains. “It has a colourful cast of characters thrown together aboard a boat to Venice. The plot is packed with innuendo and double–entendre, and has fantastic music to top it all off.”
As the arts liberated themselves from the constraints of solely religious expression in 16th century Venice, he says: “For the first time in history, composers expressed how it feels to fall in love, how to fake it and how to get over it”. “Monteverdi’s madrigals are brimming with passion and sensuality. Their emotional impact is as palpable and overwhelming now as it was then. Similarly, Banchieri had a knack for bouncy catchy tunes. They make you smile, whether you want to or not!”
The singers, sopranos Anna Fraser and Susannah Lawergren, mezzo- soprano Lanneke Jones, tenor Richard Black, baritone Mark Donnelly and bass Clive Birch are joined by early music specialists Tommie Andersson and Laura Vaughan. Andersson will play the the lute, theorbo and Spanish guitar, and Vaughan the lirone and gamba, recreating the authentic sound of Venetian music 500 years ago. Roland Peelman himself will play the harpsichord completing the continuo section.
Tickets from $59. Concessions, under 30s and student tickets available. Additional fees may apply.
Call (02) 8256 2222 or 1300 797 118, on line at www.cityrecitalhall.com or in person at the City Recital Hall box office 2, Angel Place, Sydney.
