The Alliance Française Toronto is presenting Faenza Ensemble, an early music ensemble with a difference. They’ll be performing a program of French music titled Un bestiaire fabuleux, a Tribute to Jean de La Fontaine on October 17.
The program includes animal-inspired works by Marin Marais, François Campion, Nicolas de Chédeville, Ennemond Gautier, François Couperin, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, and the Manuscrit Boerez.
The Program
Jean de La Fontaine (1621 – 1695) was a French fabulist, a popular poet of the 17th century who became well known for his Fables. He collected fables and myths from both Western and Eastern sources and created French free verses to the stories. His Fables, divided into 12 books, are considered one of the classics of French literature. His tales of everyday moral decisions, sprinkled with satire and politics of the day, often use animals as characters.
La Fontaine’s Fables are set to music in the work Recueil De Fables Choisies, Dans Le Gout De M. De La Fontaine, Sur De Petits Airs Et Vaudevilles Connus, Notés À La Fin Pour En Faciliter Le Chant, which he published in 1767. The work provides the inspiration for the concert.
Faenza
Faenza Ensemble is: Olga Pitarch, vocals, spinet, castanets; Marco Horvat, vocals, guitar, theorbo; Francisco Mañalich, vocals, bass viol, guitar.
Marco Horvat founded the ensemble in 1996 in Paris, naming it after a famous early 15th century manuscript called the Codex Faenza. His intention was to spotlight medieval music. As he progressed, however, he realized that capturing true “early music” was impossible from a distance of centuries.
He turned his focus to the music of the ancien régime, the era of French history prior to the Revolution of 1789, looking for the spirit of the music rather than aiming to reproduce it in every detail. Marco also explored the relationship between texts that are spoken and sung through the work of poet-musician Guillaume de Machaut (1300 – 1377).
Faenza gradually evolved to specialize in 17th century music as its core repertoire, and continue to explore the works of author-composers such as Bellerofonte Castaldi, Charles Dassoucy, and of course La Fontaine.
- Find out more details about the concert, and find tickets, [HERE].
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