Apollo’s Fire Presents: The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
LOCAL PERFORMANCES: October 31 – November 7
NATIONAL TOUR PERFORMANCES: November 4 - 14
Jeannette Sorrell, Artistic Director
Oliver Mercer & Karim Sulayman, tenors
Molly Quinn & Nell Snaidas, sopranos
with
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano
Jesse Blumberg & Jonathan Woody, bass
Apollo’s Singers
"A resplendent account, brilliantly motivated by Sorrell and performed with vibrant attention to dramatic detail. In short, a thriller from first note to last." – THE PLAIN DEALER
Monteverdi’s groundbreaking masterpiece, the Vespers of 1610, has been a signature piece for Apollo’s Fire for over 15 years. Now Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell and her vibrant company of artists are delighted to bring this resplendent masterwork to new audiences across the country with a national tour, preceded by four local performances in Northeast Ohio. The 9-city national tour underwritten by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Now hailed “the U.S.A.’s hottest baroque band” (Classical Music Magazine, UK), Apollo's Fire first presented the Monteverdi Vespers in Northeast Ohio in 1998. The performances were hailed then as the “the smash hit of the classical music season” (THE PLAIN DEALER). AF reprised its unique interpretation of Monteverdi’s masterpiece in 2010, coinciding with its first national tour of the piece and an international CD release of the work – which debuted in the Top 10 on the Classical Billboard Chart.
AF’s unique rendition has been recognized internationally: “Exultant… instrumental colours blaze brilliantly.”
(THE SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON); “The entire account was an Apollo’s Fire triumph. Sorrell must be one of the best conductors around in this repertoire. In her hands, the glory of Monteverdi’s accomplishment couldn’t have been more radiant or moving.”(THE PLAIN DEALER);“A stunning achievement… It wins out handily over William Christie’s versions and other recent issues.”(FANFARE); “Sorrell and her fine young choir lavish attention on every phrase and inflexion. The exhilaration and sense of discovery is utterly infectious… An unanticipated delight.” (INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW, UK)
The Music:
The Vespers (evening prayers) is a 90-minute piece for soloists, chorus and orchestra, composed around Biblical texts – primarily the sensual love poetry from the Songs of Solomon. Intended for a cathedral acoustic, the work will be performed by Apollo's Fire in a number of cathedral and stone-church venues. An ambitious work of sacred music for Monteverdi in his time, Vespers requires a bold ensemble even for performances today. The composer did not indicate much of the instrumentation, nor tempos or dynamics – leaving all such decisions to the conductor.
“Monteverdi was a giant,” says Sorrell. “I think of him like Beethoven - a revolutionary, living at the end of one style period, and almost single-handedly forging a new one through sheer force of will. He used the tools of the Renaissance, but created a new and intensely emotional form of expression, which we call Baroque.”
The Vespers unites the structure and counterpoint of the West with the exotic flamboyance of the East. With this choral masterpiece, Monteverdi forged a dramatic and vivid new musical style, evoking the struggle between the archaic with the revolutionary.
Apollo’s Fire performs the Vespers with 7 vocal soloists, its renowned professional chamber choir Apollo’s Singers, and an orchestra of gleaming period instruments, including theorbos and sackbuts. It is the largest ensemble to-date that AF has presented on tour, and one of the largest ensembles to cross the Apollo’s Fire stage.
Tickets:
Tickets range from $20-$68 with special rates for students, seniors (65+), and young adults (under 30). Single tickets are available for purchase online at www.apollosfire.org and by phone at (216) 320-0012 or (800) 314-2535. Full-time students with ID are admitted FREE to the performance in Akron on Friday, October 31, underwritten by the GAR Foundation.
Local Performances:
Friday, Oct. 31, 7:30 PM St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, AKRON 1361 W. Market Street
Saturday, Nov. 1, 8:00 PM Trinity Cathedral, CLEVELAND 2230 Euclid Avenue
Sunday, Nov. 2, 8:00 PM St Mary of the Falls, OLMSTED FALLS 25615 Bagley Road
Friday, Nov. 7, 8:00 PM First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS 3630 Fairmount Blvd.
Visiting Scholar: Italian renaissance and baroque specialist Dr. Marica Tacconi, from Penn State University, presents lively lectures titled, “Venice and Mantua at the Dawn of the 17th Century,” one hour before each performance on Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.
Local concerts are sponsored in part by the E. Nakamichi Foundation.
National Tour: AF’s national tour is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. For complete information on tour performances including venue and ticketing details, please visit: http://apollosfire.org/touring/touring-engagements/
November 4 University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana Champaign, IL
November 6 UMS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
November 9 University of Florida, Gainesville Gainesville, FL
November 10 Houston Early Music Houston, TX
November 11 Texas Performing Arts, University of Texas, Austin Austin, TX
November 13 Cal performances, University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA
November 14 Stanford Live, Stanford University Stanford, CA