Oh Gran Fernando - ensemble Le Tendre Amour

The ensemble Le Tendre Amour
(Guest conductor: Eduardo Egüez)
y
Adrián Schvarzstein (staging)
present
Oh Gran Fernando
based on the
Oh Gran Fernando
Madrigals from
the eighth book by
Claudio Monteverdi
Opera, the genre that revolutionized music history,
was born at the beginning of the 17th century.
And it was Claudio Monteverdi
Mont
who took the first steps
in the birth of this new musical form…
[the audience] remained moved by the emotion
of compassion in such a way as almost to let forth tears;
and applauded it for being a song of a kind
no longer seen nor heard."
(Extract from the preface by Monteverdi)
Oh Gran Fernando
about the project...
A troupe of court “bufones” (singers, musicians,
and actors) present a comic, poetic show before
the “king” (chosen from the audience). Using
Monteverdi´s madrigals, this creation brings to
life the human relationships described in those
works.
Displ
Displays
of musical and vocal virtuosity,
interaction with the audience, creative use of the
theater space, and a good dosis of humor are the
central concept of “Il Combattimento di Tancredi
e Clorinda.” In a series of implausible situations
provoked by the “bufones,” we will recreate this
combat in an unusual way where, with few props
and a lot of invention and imagination, the
audience will be involved in a surprising fight
between two warriors.
“Segue egli impetuoso, onde assai prima
che giunga, in guisa avvien che d'armi suone
ch'ella si volge e grida: - O tu, che porte,
correndo sì? - Rispose: - E guerra e morte.”
Oh Gran Fernando
about the project...
In 1624 “Il combattimento” was performed in the palace of
the Venitian noble Mocenigo, an art form that was later
named “opera.”
One evening during the Carnival in the Mocenigo palace,
some love and war madrigals by Monteverdi were sung to
liven the party. Soon, all the guests were surprised to see
three characters enter, two of whom arrived in full armor
(Tancredo and Clorinda). The third was the Narrator, and
sang verses by Tasso as an introduction.The warriors tell the
dramatic story through song until its mournful ending. The
audience, it was said by the composer, was very pleased and
audienc
astonished because never before had something similar
been seen.
390 years later, the modern “bufones” in a ficticious court
will be able to do the same for the audience. The contrasting
passions of Love and War are put to song, as Monteverdi
stated to do in his introduction to the work. These passions
open the spectrum to create scenes that play with these
opposites, giving a comic and absurd tone to the situations
that “Il combattimento” suggests.
Oh Gran Fernando
about the piece...
On 1 September 1638 Monteverdi sat down to write the dedication of his eighth and largest
book of madrigals. He addressed it to the newly crowned Austrian emperor Ferdinand III, and
proudly entitled it ‘Warlike and Amorous Madrigals’. In a preface to the reader he explained
that the idea for the volume arose from his perception that the musical style of his day was
well fitted to express love and passion, less so to express the contrary emotions of anger,
disdain and war. Monteverdi’s solution to the problem was characteristic of the man and his
time.
He looked to Classical precedent, and in particular to the pyrrhic measure of Greek poetic
theory. By combining its repeated ‘hammer strokes’ with the conventional fanfares and simple
diatonic harmony of Renaissance battle music, he developed a new style, the stile concitato,
and organized his eighth book in two volumes – one warlike, one amorous – to demonstrate
it. The respective themes are announced by elaborate concerted settings of complementary
sonnets: Altri canti di Marte (‘Let others sing of Mars’, a poem by Marino) is matched by Altri
canti d’Amor (‘Let others sing of Love’, an anonymous imitation of the Marino). The bulk of
the volumes are taken up with smaller madrigals, many of them duets and trios, but they end
with larger-scale pieces ‘in genere rappresentativo’ – in the dramatic genre. War is
represented by Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and the ballo Volgendo il ciel, Love by
Il ballo delle ingrate.
“Mentre egli il suon de' sacri detti sciolse,
colei di gioia trasmutossi, e rise:
e in atto di morir lieta e vivace
dir parea: "S'apre il ciel: io vado in pace".
Oh Gran Fernando
about the piece...
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Monteverdi explained in the 1638
volume, was first performed during the 1624 carnival in the palazzo of the
Venetian nobleman Girolamo Mocenigo. The text is taken from an episode
in Tasso’s famous epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, a fantastic account of
the Crusades.Tancredi, a Christian knight, challenges a Saracen opponent to
single combat.They fight until the Saracen falls mortally wounded; only then,
as Tancredi’s opponent asks to be baptized, does he realize to his horror
that he has been fighting the maiden Clorinda. Monteverdi included enough
production notes with the music to make it possible to visualize the 1624
performance. It begins without warning after a few conventional madrigals
have been sung. Clorinda enters first, armed and on foot, followed by
Tancredi on a ‘cavallo mariano’ – perhaps a hobby horse rather than a live
animal. Then Testo (the narrator) appears and begins to sing. His
descriptions of the combat, graphically illustrated in the music, are matched
exactly by gestures from the performers.
exact
Perhaps the most remarkable and forward-looking aspect of Il
combattimento is that most of the word-painting is provided by the
instruments rather than the voices, though Testo has his version of the stile
concitato in the form of some fearsome tongue-twisting semiquaver
passages. Monteverdi uses the conventional fanfares and rushing scales of
battle music, but adds to them a battery of novel devices: the repeated
notes of the pyrrhic measure are rendered in the strings as a measured
tremulando, which Monteverdi insists must not be simplified by the bass
tr
players; music for Tancredi’s horse doubles speed as it breaks into a gallop;
pizzicato, the strings struck with two fingers, illustrates short-range blows
with the hilt of the sword; Clorinda begs for baptism to string chords using
a kind of sforzando, forte to piano within a single bow, and she dies to the
accompaniment of ‘smooth bow-strokes’. Such detailed instructions to
string players were unprecedented at the time, even in virtuoso violin
music.
L
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Taking its name from a prevalent theme of the age of Louis XIV, Le Tendre Amour is an energetic group of musicians
who have been drawn together by their common dedication to performing music of the late seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in a way that is inspiring to the audiences of today. The ensemble, directed and organized by
Katy Elkin and Esteban Mazer, is based in Barcelona, though its members are originally from many corners of the
world: France, Italy, Cuba, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, and the United States. Since their beginning, the
emphasis has been in creating unusual programs, always with the aim of pleasing audience of all ages.
The ensemble has been invited to perform in important festivals throughout Europe and the USA such as: Styriarte
and Trigonale festivals (Austria), Winterzauber and Güldener Herbst (Germany), Sablé-sur-Sarthe and Strasbourg
festival de musique ancienne (France), Brezice (Slovenia), Varna Summer (Bulgaria), Samobor Music Festival and
Varazdin Baroque Evenings (Croatia), Banchetto Musicale (Lithuania), Connecticut Early Music Festival, Washington
Early Music Festival and Boston Sohip festival (USA) among many others. Over the past few years, their artistic interest has turned towards the field of chamber opera and alternative
programs. Research in the field of Jewish baroque music led to the prize of best interpretation for their program of
that repertoire in the Varazdin Baroque festival (Croatia) and subsequently their first chamber opera production,
Esther by C.G. Lidarti, which was a commission by the Musée d´Art et d´Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris. Its success
led to a production of Esther at the Psalm festival in Graz, Austria and soon after the intermedio Le Devin du Village
by JJ Rousseau at the famed Styriarte festival in Graz, Austria. In 2011, Le Tendre Amour, in cooperation with the
Teatre de Sarrià, produced Pergolesi´s La Serva Padrona in Barcelona. The premiere of Los Elementos also took place
Teat
in 2011, with roaring success in the Trigonale festival der Alte Musik in Austria. Since then, Los Elementos has
appeared in such festivals as Banchetto Musicale (Vilnius, Lithuania), the early music festival in Luxembourg, the opera
season in Bydgoszcz, Poland (with an audience of 1200), and the Varazdin Baroque festival (Croatia), where the
production was awarded the “IVAN LUKAɇIĆ” Prize for the best concert of the festival as well as for the best
interpretation. All of these opera productions continue to tour, and were collaborations with actor Adrián
Schvarzstein. In 2013, Le Tendre Amour performed 40 concerts of “Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse,”a completely
Schvarzstein
original production that combined theater, circus, and music in the Biennale de Bron (Lyon).
The ensemble recorded a CD of French sacred cantatas called “Le Passage de la Mer Rouge” for the illustrious label
K617 in 2009, a disc of 17th century English music called “All in a Garden Green” for Brilliant Classics in 2011, as
well as a disc of the music of De Bousset called “Le Naufrage du Pharaon” in 2012, again for Brilliant Classics, and
released in the spring of 2013. Le Tendre Amour has also recorded for the national radios in Catalunya, Slovenia, and
Croatia. More information: www.letendreamour.com
Eduardo Egüez
Born in Buenos Aires, Eduardo Egüez belongs to the new
generation of argentine lutenists. He first studied guitar
with Miguel Angel Girollet and Eduardo Fernández. His
studies in composition were conducted at the Catholic
Argentine University, while in 1995 he obtained his diploma
in lute from the “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis” under the
guidance the Hopkinson Smith.
Mr. Egüez has given many solo concerts in the main cities of
South America, Europe, Australia and Japan, being well
received by critics worldwide and highly appreciated by the
public. He was received awards in the following
international competitions: “Promociones Musicales”,
Buenos Aires, 1984, “Círculo Guitarrístico Argentino”,
Buenos Aires, 1984, “Concours International de Guitare”,
Paris (Radio France), 1986, “V Concurso Internacional de
Guitarra” (Jacinto and Inocencio Guerrero Foundation),
Madrid, 1989.
He has given international courses and seminars, the most noteworthy being: "Camping Musical Bariloche", Argentina, "Universidad
Católica Argentina", "Universidad Católica de Santiago de Chile", "Instituto para las Artes", Uruguay, "Musikhochschule Wuppertal",
Germany, "Conservatoire Populaire de Musique", Geneva, "Fundación La Caixa", Murcia, Spain, "Conservatorio di Musica V. Bellini",
Palermo, Italy, "Fondation Royaumont", France, "Académie Baroque Européenne d’Ambronay", France, “Festival de Guitarra de Gran
Canaria”, Spain, Tokio Lute Society", Japan, “Lute Society of Sydney”, Australia, “Early Music Festival”, Gijón, Spain, “High School of
Music”, Salvador de Bahia, Brasil.
Since 1992 to the present, Mr. Egüez has performed as a basso continuo player, being part of several groups such as: “Elyma” (Gabriel
Garrido), “Hesperion XXI” (Jordi Savall), “Orchestra Mozart” (Claudio Abbado), “Ensemble Baroque de Limoges” (Christophe Coin),
“La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roi” (Jean-Claude Malgoire), “Aurora” (Enrico Gatti), “Concerto Italiano” (Rinaldo Alessandrini),
“Labyrinto” (Paolo Pandolfo), “The Rare Fruits Council” (Manfred Kraemer), “Café Zimmermann” (Valetti / Frisch), “Les
Sacqueboutiers” (JP Canihac), “Ricercar Consort” (P. Pierlot). Mr. Eguez has also accompanied artists such as Emma Kirkby, Maria
Cristina Kiehr,
Kieh Rolf Lislevand,Victor Torres, among others.
Eduardo Egüez has recorded for several labels as: “Astrée Auvidis”, “Astrée Naïve”, “Arcana”, “Glossa”, “K617”, “Op 111”, “Alia Vox”,
“E Lucevan le Stelle”, “Stradivarius”, “Symphonia”, “Alpha”, “Ambroisie”, “Naxos”, “Flora”, “Mirare”, “Accent”, “Harmonia Mundi”.
As a soloist he has recorded “Tombeau” with works by Silvius Leopold Weiss (E Lucevan le Stelle), the complete lute works by Johann
Sebastian Bach (Ma recordings) and “Le Maître du Roi” with works by Robert de Visée (Ma recordings).
At the same time, he leads the “Ensemble La Chimera”. With this ensemble he has recorded for the label Ma recordings “Buenos Aires
Madrigal” (fusion of early Italian madrigals and Argentinean tango) and “Tonos y Tonadas” (fusion of early Spanish “tonos humanos” and
folk music from Latinoamerica).
Adrian Schvarzstein
Stage director and actor Adrián Schvarzstein is a mix of
Spanish, Argentinean, Italian, and everything! Adrián is
known for his creative productions, where the artists and
audience are brought together. Always an entertainer,
Adrián brings out the child in everyone. His background in
commedia dell´arte (after studying with Dario Fo in Italy)
led to the development of his personal street theater style
and unique charm. He has worked extensively in the world
of circus (Circus Ronaldo, Circus Klezmer, Call Me Maria)
and street theater (the Greenman, Dans).
The creation of the street theatre show 'Kamchatka'
(Miramiro prize in 2008) and the direction of the opera 'La
Barca' in the Reisoper in Holland are few of his last
successful projects. Adrián has been awarded the Ernst
Prize at La Strada Festival in 2008, and the Zirkolika Prize
for the best circus director in 2010.
For years he worked in staging at the Tel Aviv Opera
House in Israel, and since 2003 has collaborated with Le
Tendre Amour, staging the operas Esther, Le Devin du
Village, La Serva Padrona, Los Elementos, and Don
Quixote chez la Duchesse by Boismortier.
staging...
Oh Gran Fernando
3 singers: soprano, 2 tenors
2 actors
2 violins
1 cornetto
1 sacbutte
1 viola da gamba
1 violone
1 tiorba
1 harpsichord
artists