If opera is intoxicating, with rituals and curtains, the art song is a mystery, just pure listening.
I’m thinking of courtly love and the invisible muse, the intimacy of poetry weaving through our living rooms, the fine arts diffusing from the high echelons into each and every one of us - I’m transported to 19th Century Venice, I’m destined for the stage, I’m singing songs for the one I love no matter how far away…
Join Coro-Dante for a special evening that celebrates the art song-- with performances, video art, and live painting.
If opera is intoxicating, with rituals and curtains, the art song is a mystery, just pure listening. Both forms found their full expression in the 19th century, but while opera occupied the larger social sphere of theaters and opera houses, the art song thrived in the intimacy of salons. And for good reason. By its nature, the art song is confessional--it probes our most intense emotions.
A unique form, the art song has its roots deeply tangled in the poetic. From Bellini to Donizetti and Tosti, composers often found inspirational fuel in classic romantic poems and gave them expression by fusing them with music. So, the art song has two "scores"--the poetic and the musical. And through the rhythmic interplay of poetic verse and musical patterns, it registers the most volatile and transient feelings and enacts what moves and transforms.
Our program attempts to make visible this movement and transformation by way of another art form of the period--the silent film. At once gestural, charged, and mysterious, silent cinema, just as the art song, deals in the in-between-ness. Curated footage from early Italian silent films will act as backdrop canvas for performances of art songs, both well-loved and newly discovered, leaving space--between the lines, notes, and framers--for you to participate in the story.
Reception: 7 pm - 8 pm/ Salon 8 pm - 9 pm
Soloists: Holly Ahearn, David Augusto Bozon, Rosario Caltabiano, Sabrina Ellis, Saori Erickson, Dana Pentia, Juan Suarez
With the special participation of visual artists Sharon Lacey and Fotini Christophilis.
