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Strictly Baroque: Festival will include excerpts from 17th-century 'semi-operas' by Henry Purcell
Photo Courtesy of Bill Benners
Thomas Baird and Paige Whitley-Baugess will dance to music by Henry Purcell in "Triumph of Love."
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Published: June 15, 2008
Glenn Siebert sang, philosophized and enthused as he described the most theatrical component of the next Magnolia Baroque Festival. This will be "Triumph of Love," a program of dancing, singing and instrumental music that will be presented Saturday in the Stevens Center.
"What we're after … is to present music performed in a way that just doesn't seem staid or boring," Siebert said. "That's what's different about this one."
Siebert, a tenor with many professional credits, teaches at the N.C. School of the Arts. He also sings in and directs the festival, which, after beginning Tuesday at Duke Gardens in Durham, will present five different programs Wednesday through next Sunday in various venues around Winston-Salem. The presentations will include "The Moravians' Passion for Music" (Wednesday); "The Excitement of Improvisation" (Thursday); "Love of Bach" (Friday); and "Promenade" (next Sunday).
"Triumph of Love" is the one festival program that's not wholly instrumental. It will celebrate the stage music of Henry Purcell (ca. 1659-1695), a famous English composer also known for his sacred and chamber music. Scenes from his King Arthur, Dioclesian and The Fairy Queen will feature not only the Magnolia Baroque Festival and Chorus but also principal dancers Paige Whitley Baugess and Tom Baird and the New Bern Dancing Assembly. Siebert said that the excerpts, which will not include spoken dialogue, will re-enact the "variety-show" formats of Purcell's time.
Michael Dodds teaches music history and literature at NCSA. He has written illuminating program notes for Saturday's performance. In them, he calls variety "an important trait of Restoration theater music."
"Fully sung opera was a rarity in 17th-century England; the English mostly preferred semi-opera, spoken plays that integrated singing, dancing and lavish spectacle," he writes. "Most semi-operas were adaptations of pre-existing plays, with the principal roles performed by non-singing actors and most of the singing assigned to minor characters, played by professional singers.
"Dramatists tried to justify the inclusion of so much music by integrating music into the plot line wherever possible: religious rites, magic spells, drinking songs, serenades, lullabies and play-within-a-play entertainments afforded composers a wide variety of moods and musical styles."
Siebert said that Purcell's music, unlike that in an opera, loosely follows the story and doesn't further the action. But he called it "great" and "fun."
"It's very tuneful," Siebert said. "And one of the reasons we have to have dancers is because it's all dance music. It's very rhythmic."
Siebert also praised Purcell's setting of texts, likening his abilities in that area to those of a handful of composers from the English-speaking world, including Benjamin Britten and such stars of the Great American Songbook as Irving Berlin.
"It is just so wonderful," Siebert said. "It's a very French concept, actually. In French Baroque vocal music, the cadence of the language is almost primal. The text just comes to your ear really well."
The Magnolia Baroque Festival is supported, in part, by the Kenan Institute for the Arts, which helps underwrite projects involving instructors and students from NCSA. The next Magnolia festival will be in 2010. It has become a biennial event, alternating with the Boston Early Music Festival, in which many of Magnolia's core musicians also perform.
As for other highlights in the 2008 festival, these will include:
□ A first-ever concert outside of Winston-Salem. This will be Tuesday in Duke Gardens in Durham, with the Andrew Willis, on fortepiano, violinist Gesa Kordes and several other musicians performing music from the Salem Collegium collection.
The concert, called "The Moravians' Passion for Music," will be repeated Wednesday in Calvary Moravian Church in Winston-Salem. It will include works by such early Moravian composers as J.F. Peter and W. Pichl, and it will include music, by Haydn and Mozart, that the first Moravians brought with them to Salem, in the 18th century.
Siebert said he wants to see how the concert outside of Winston-Salem goes. He said that if it goes well, he'll consider presenting performances around the country.
"We'd like to cast a wider net," Siebert said. "That would be one way of doing it."
□ Ingrid Matthews, a Baroque violinist from Winston-Salem who once studied at NCSA, starred in the 2006 festival. She will be featured in two concerts in the 2008 event.
One will be "The Excitement of Improvisation," in which a group called The Harmonious Blacksmith will demonstrate early-Baroque improvisation Thursday in Gray Auditorium at Old Salem Visitors Center. The other will be "Love of Bach," in which Bach concertos will be featured; this will be in Watson Hall at NCSA on Friday.
□ In a first-ever "Promenade," next Sunday, student musicians from NCSA will perform music that would have been heard in Salem from the late 18th century to the Civil War. The performances will happen in Old Salem venues: Gray Auditorium, Salem Tavern, Saint Philip's Church and Vogler House.
■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.
Going for Baroque
The Magnolia Baroque Festival will run Tuesday through next Sunday. Unless otherwise noted, all festival concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m., and tickets for all concerts in Winston-Salem will be $25, $20 for seniors and $10 for students; go to www.magnoliabaroque.com or call the Stevens Center box office at 336-721-1945.
• TUESDAY: "The Moravians' Passion for Music" at Duke Gardens in Durham, includes music by such early Moravian composers as J.F. Peter and W. Pichl, and music by Haydn and Mozart that the first Moravians brought with them to Salem. For tickets, go to www.triangleearlymusic.org.
• WEDNESDAY: "Passion" will be repeated in Calvary Moravian Church, 600 Holly Ave. Nola Reed Knouse, the director of the Moravian Music Foundation, will present a pre-concert lecture at 6:45 p.m. in the church.
• THURSDAY: "The Excitement of Improvisation," featuring The Harmonious Blacksmith, in Gray Auditorium at the Old Salem Visitors Center.
• FRIDAY: "Love of Bach," featuring the composer's violin concertos, in Watson Hall at NCSA.
• SATURDAY: "The Triumph of Love" -- featuring scenes from Purcell's King Arthur, Dioclesian and The Fairy Queen -- in the Stevens Center.
• NEXT SUNDAY: from 2 to 4 p.m., the festival will wind up with "Promenade." NCSA students will plays music that would have been heard in Salem from the late 18th century to the Civil War. The performances will be in Old Salem venues: Gray Auditorium, Salem Tavern, Saint Philip's Church and Vogler House. Admission for the music only is $5. Admission for the music and for entrance to Old Salem attractions is $21, $10 for children ages 6-16. For tickets, call the Old Salem Visitors Center at 336-721-7350.
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