I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble celebrates, among other things, John Dowland’s 450th birthday with a concert tonight titled Addicted to Love.
Ensemble regulars are joined by harpsichordist James Johnstone at Eastminster United Church, which is a block from the Chester subway station, Details here.
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It’s an operatic blue moon at the Metropolitan Opera as the company presents the final performance of its once-a-decade Berlioz overload in Les Troyens.
The broadcast on CBC Radio 2’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and the live simulcast to Cineplex theatres begins at noon, and, because this is the version with an hour’s worth of ballet amidst the encampments of antiquity, daylight will have vanished by the time the spectacle ends five-and-a-quarter hours later.
(Cineplex will offer an encore screening on March 9. Details here.)
The production features a one-two American diva punch with soprano Deborah Voight as Cassandra and mezzo Susan Graham as Dido (Graham had to withdraw from a performance a few days ago, so fingers crossed that she’s available today). Aeneas is is the sturdy Bryan Hymel. The great Fabio Luisi conducts Francesca Zambello’s epic production.
(Here’s a link to the official programme.)
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A mix of orchestral and operatic worth checking out is medici.tv’s free-on-demand high-definition recording of the Berlin Philharmonic’s New Year’s Eve concert with music director Simon Rattle and mezzo Cecilia Bartoli in fabulous form.
It’s a strange programme, with a Baroque first half and a second half devoted to Dvorák and Ravel. I wouldn’t have thought it a great combination, but the artists on stage changed my mind.
I have to admit that I don’t remember hearing a modern orchestra play the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau before, so witnessing the ballet excerpts from his opera Les Boréades played by the Berliners was a shock. The music sounds completely different, but I enjoyed the change, even if I do prefer the period-instrument approach.
Ravel’s Daphis and Chloë Suite No. 2 is magical.
Bartoli is, simply put, spectacular, and is worth a visit with this concert (you can click your way through the stuff you don’t want to listen to).
Check it out here.
John Terauds