Roman oratorio and Venetian extravagance!
We’re delighted to collaborate with Music at Met to present this one-night-only opportunity for Toronto’s Baroque music lovers to hear VICE & VIRTUE, a new musical co-production by The Gallery Players of Niagara of St Catharines, and Hamilton’s Capella Intima. The show takes place on Friday February 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Metropolitan United Church.
The program’s cornerstone is Giuseppe, an oratorio attributed to Luigi Rossi dating from 1650 and discovered in the Vatican Library. Based on the biblical story of the coat of many colours, this ebullient ‘drama in music’ is scored for five voices, strings, theorbo, and organ, and reflects the Rossi’s imaginative and evocative writing style for multiple voices. Following this is a small feast of secular Venetian vocal and instrumental works by Monteverdi, Sances, and their contemporaries – lots more 17th-century fireworks incorporating the themes encountered in Giuseppe: Envy, Injustice, Faith and Charity.
The program is directed by Bud Roach, Artistic Director of Capella Intima, and brings together a stellar group of performers: Sheila Dietrich & Ellen Torrie, sopranos; Laura Pudwell, alto; Bud Roach, tenor & Artistic Director; and David Roth, baritone, from Capella Intima; and from the Gallery Players of Niagara: Patricia Ahern & Michelle Odorico, baroque violins; Margaret Gay, baroque cello; Lucas Harris & Jonathan Stuchbery, theorbo & lutes; and Jonathan Oldengarm, portative organ & harpsichord.
We hope you’ll take this wonderful opportunity to hear this rarely heard music, sung and played by these gifted musicians. The sounds are exquisite, the voices are vibrant, the music was the rage of mid-17th-century Rome and resounds just as meaningfully today!
VICE & VIRTUE
Friday, February 7 @ 7:30 p.m.
Metropolitan United Church, 56 Queen Street East, Toronto (on the north side between Bond and Church Streets)
Tickets available at the door, or in advance at: https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1041