William Christie and Les Arts Florissants are synonymous with skillful, sumptuous playing. On July 11, in the opening performance of this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival, audiences here will have a rare chance to hear them as they present one of Henry Purcell’s delightful semi-operas, The Fairy Queen. It’s part of an international tour that began last summer, and which takes this 17th-century work to a new level.
This production marks a creative revisiting of this music by Christie and his ensemble some 35 years after they first recorded it (1989). That album was instrumental in cementing Christie’s place as a leader in historically-informed performance. But Christie has said that in his half-century of interpreting The Fairy Queen this production is the most unique: the orchestra of Les Arts Florissants is joined by dancers from Companie Käfig, directed by French-Algerian hip-hop choreographer Mourad Merzouki, and the singers are graduates of Les Jardins des Voix, a training program run by Les Arts Florissants and its co-directors, Christie and singer/conductor Paul Agnew. The chorus singers are also called on to move and dance along with Merzouki’s dancers… and to prove that hip-hop works well with 17th-century art music. As Agnew has mentioned, Purcell was very modern in his own time, so why should current interpretations not push boundaries, too?
Purcell’s best-known work is probably the opera Dido and Aeneas. The Fairy Queen, however, is a semi-opera loosely related to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and designed to be performed alongside it as a series of tableaux or “masques.” These provided entertainment in between acts of the play, and featured a similarly magical cast of characters and situations in the woods on a midsummer nIght.
Although Purcell is one of England’s great and beloved composers, the music of The Fairy Queen is very French in style at times. There are a few reasons for this: one of the main ones being King Charles II’s love of French music, by Lully and his contemporaries. Charles II even went as far as to establish his own “24 Violins of the King”— not to be outdone by his cousin Louis XIV’s Vingt-quatre violons du Roi. Purcell however earns his honorary title of Orpheus Britannicus because of his deft and playful setting of English texts – in this work such memorable pieces as One Charming Night, the Drunken Poet scene with its broad humour, and beautiful instrumental movements including the joyous Chaconne which draws it to a close.
The Fairy Queen deserves to be more popular and more performed. The maturity and beauty of this music makes all the more tragic the fact that Purcell died at age 35, just three years after it was first performed. As Paul Agnew has said about the challenges of directing this work, “It’s charming, beautiful, funny, touching, magnificent music – and if you can communicate a little bit of the love for Purcell’s music then people should be very touched.”
Early Music Roundup
Women in Music: An upcoming collaboration by the AGO and Tafelmusik will celebrate women in music and the visual arts. Tafelmusik’s concert in the airy Walker Court will be played by a quartet drawn from the orchestra and will feature music by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Isabella Leonarda and Marianne Martinez. The quartet will also introduce us to music composed by “Mrs. Philarmonica,” a pseudonym for a talented composer who was clearly influenced by Corelli. Their program complements the AGO’s exhibition, “Making her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe 1400-1800,” which ends on July 1.
Jun 28 7:00: Art Gallery of Ontario. Tafelmusik: Making Herself Heard. Geneviève Gilardeau, violin; Cristina Zacharias, violin; Michael Unterman, cello; Charlotte Nediger, harpsichord. 416-979- 6648. A seated performance free with general admission.
Mostly Madrigals - three matinees: Whether they showcase clever wordplay or bemoan thwarted love, Renaissance madrigals are an entertaining genre, but it must be said (and I have before!) that they are even more fun to sing than to hear. Get your madrigal on this summer at three matinee events touring different locations. A small vocal ensemble will sing 16th-century secular songs from England, France and Italy in an outdoor setting, but who will stop you if you join in? (Bring your own lawn chair!)
Jun 12 1:00: Singout at Woodbine Beach. 1675 Lake Shore Blvd. E. Free.
Jul 12 1:00: Singout at Humber Bay West. Gazebo at 50 Humber Bay Park Rd. W., Etobicoke. Free. Google “Gazebo at Humber Bay.”
Aug 12 1:00: Singout at Pickering Esplanade Park. 1 The Esplanade, Pickering. Free.
Music Mondays: Bird-watching grew exponentially in popularity during the pandemic when, like sourdough-baking, it was an activity that could be done safely at home. But it’s a different Byrd that will be celebrated in an upcoming concert by the Cardinal Consort of Viols, joined by countertenor Daniel Cabena. This year marks the 400th anniversary of a composer who is beloved by choristers and viol-players but deserves greater attention in general. The concert will feature works by William Byrd and, to place him in context, by his contemporaries as well.
Jun 17, 12:15: Church of the Holy Trinity, 19 Trinity Sq. 416-598-4521 X223 or www.musicmondays.ca or musicmondayscs@gmail.com. PWYC ($10 suggested).
Frey at Elora: I feel that no opportunity to hear Elinor Frey play should be missed. Her performances of 17th and 18th-century compositions delight whether she is interpreting classics or bringing lesser-known works to light, such as in her latest recording of music by Dell’abaco. Her performance at this year’s Elora Festival will return to more familiar works as she revisits Bach’s Cello Suites. She recently performed the entire set over two nights in Toronto, but presumably this concert will present a selection of suites.
Jul 13, 4:00: Elora Festival. Elinor Frey Plays Bach. St. John’s Anglican Church (Elora), 36 Henderson St., Elora. www.ticketpeak.co. $50; $20(st).
Stephanie Conn is an ethnomusicologist, editor, and former producer for CBC Radio Music. With the ensemble Puirt a Baroque she sang on the 1999 Juno-nominated recording Return of the Wanderer, and has sung with Tafelmusik, La Chapelle de Québec, Aradia, and Sine Nomine. In Cape Breton she is active as a traditional Gaelic singer and piano accompanist. You can find her podcast at meezstephanie.substack.com (also on Spotify or YouTube).
