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I Fagiolini
Event 06: York Early Music Festival
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York
Saturday 10 July 7:30pm
Adults £20.00
| Concessions £17.00
| Students £5.00
Please note that tickets are no longer available to buy online but can be bought on the door from one hour before the performance.
Directed by Robert Hollingworth
L'Amfiparnaso
In this madrigal comedy, written just before the first opera,Vecchi brings alive the characters of commedia dell'arte: mean-hearted old Pantalone; the verbose Doctor (speaking minestrone); the over-amorous Spanish Captain and the ever-hungry servants – the zanni. Its originality lay in the marriage of the 'Twin Peaks' of comedy and great music: alongside the slapstick (the show features an actual slapstick),Vecchi writes bittersweet madrigals for the lovers worthy of Monteverdi.The performance will be staged using 16th-century Venetian masks and the fabulous original dialects will be retained, but to recreate the original's wonderful wordplay, each scene is set up with English introductions: 'Don't despair, they do sing prettily: just lie back and think of Italy'.
I Fagiolini turn a silk purse into one beaded in gold…A highly enjoyable production which celebrates the immediacy, relevance and enjoyment to be found in a 400-year-old musical.' Gramophone
Please note that seating is reserved for this performance.
Pre-Concert Talk
Staging a 400-year-old comedy with unfamiliar characters, untranslatable jokes and obsolete cultural references in a piece which Vecchi implied should not be staged anyway, creates problems. Join us at 6.30pm in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall as the performers explain how and why they have done this, what liberties they have and haven't taken, and what they regard as intrinsic to the piece. With live musical examples. Admission is free to those attending Event 06.
For more information visit www.ifagiolini.com
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