Masterpieces of Italian Baroque - Storm of Passion
Our performance focuses on Handel's Italian-language cantata Ero and Leandro, written in 1707. The Greek myth, which tells the story of Hero and Leander's love, is about forbidden passion and its tragic consequences.
Schedule
The cantata portrays the final, tragic moments of Hero and Leander's story: after Hero sees her drowned lover's body on the shore, she gradually moves from despair, pain, and rage to resignation and then to the cold determination to follow her lover's fate and reunite with Leander in death.
The piece presents Hero as a flesh-and-blood woman, focusing on her emotional fluctuations and the psychological process leading to her suicide. In line with the extreme emotions embedded in the cantata's text, Handel uses equally intense musical techniques to depict the mental states of a woman losing her mind over the loss of her love.
The performance ensemble for Italian cantatas was always adapted to the event, the size of the audience, and the venue. With our choice of location, we aim to evoke the atmosphere of the historical performances, creating a special intimacy between the performers and the audience. In addition to historically accurate instrumental playing and elaborate costumes, our performance places a strong emphasis on the baroque gestures accompanying the singing, which primarily convey the character and the situation, while also amplifying the rhetorical meaning of the sung text. The thoughts and emotions swirling within the character are expressed by the singer through body posture, facial expressions, movements, and hand gestures.
In Hungary, Baroque gesturing is an almost unknown, intriguing system of signs that serves as a tool for entertainment, beauty, and art. It not only provides an uplifting theatrical experience for the audience but also opens new and challenging dimensions in the genre of musical theater.
Program:
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite in B minor (BWV 1067)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor (BWV 1041)
George Frideric Handel: Cantata “Ero e Leandro” (HWV 150)
Performers and Contributors:
Adriána Kalafszky – soprano, baroque gesture
Ottília Revóczky – violin
Ágnes Tóth – flute
Budapest Bach Consort
Augustin Szokos – conductor
Dávid Lövei – costumes
Mariann Makláry – wig and makeup
Tickets: https://bit.ly/3YfBK17
Tickets can be purchased on jegy.hu or at the Tourinform office in the Royal Palace of Gödöllő.