If you don’t think you like opera, you just might like the double bill presented this weekend by the Florentine Opera Company. Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689) and John Blow’s Venus and Adonis (circa 1683) were two of the earliest English language operas. Their stories are understandable without reference to supertitles on the overhead screen. Both works are compact, clocking in at less than an hour each. They represent opera in a deliciously primitive state of development, pre-canonical to those who insist that opera began with Mozart.
The upcoming performance reprises the Florentine’s 2011 production of Venus and Adonis and Dido and Aeneas—except that back then, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra musicians performed the operas on contemporary instruments. This time the players will be conducted by an internationally esteemed figure in Baroque music, harpsichordist Jory Virikour, and will play Baroque guitars, violins, cellos and other period instruments.
“They are different animals in terms of how they are strung—at a lower pitch,” the Florentine’s General Director William Florescu says of the Baroque instrumentation. “The lower pitch creates a warmer sound. There is less vibrato on the strings. The singers are asked to be less operatic.”
The double bill also allows for double casting in many roles. Alisa Jordheim stars as both Venus and Belinda; Leroy Y. Davis as Adonis and Aeneas; Colleen Brooks as the Huntsman and the Sorceress; Randall Scotting as Cupid and Spirit; Rachel Blaustein as the Shepherdess and the Second Lady; Ashley Puenner as a Shepherd and the First Witch; and Edward Graves as a Shepherd and a Sailor. Only three of the night’s cast members play a single role: Sandra Piques Eddy as Dido, Brianne Sura as the Second Witch and Nathaniel Hill as a Shepherd. Florescu is proud to note that three graduates of the Florentine’s Studio Artists Program and four present students are in the cast.
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Purcell and his mentor, Blow, would feel comfortable in the performance’s setting, the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall in the Marcus Center, a room whose intimacy and acoustical warmth are similar to the concert halls they knew in 17th-century England.
Although Florentine Opera has toyed in the past with mounting centuries-old works in modern dress, for the Purcell-Blow production, scenery-lighting designer Noele Stollmack “designed a working backstage from a Baroque theater,” Florescu explains. “In the Baroque era, fascination with stage machinery began. We’ve recreated a thunder wheel—you’ll see a chorus member roll it across the stage.”
While costumes, furnishings, instruments and arrangements are as authentically Baroque as possible, Dani Kuepper of Danceworks injects a different flair into the dance scenes she choreographed. “She mixed Baroque dance with her own modern twist to create a beautiful hybrid—a nod to tradition with a modern sensibility,” Florescu says.
Surprised that dance would be significant in Baroque opera? Florescu explains that English composers of that era took their cue from the French, “who always had a dance component in their stage work, whether they were ballet or not. And so many musical forms—like the minuet—are really dance forms. Both Blow and Purcell incorporated dance breaks—to use a modern term. Sometimes the dances are germane to the action. Sometimes they involve the entertainment the characters are enjoying.”
Like operas—and soap operas—to come, the Baroque works are love stories where boy meets girl or goddess meets guy, given the stories’ origins in Greek mythology and the influence of ancient theater on early opera composers. Florescu is proud of the Florentine Opera’s scope. Recent seasons have witnessed world premieres as well as the roots of opera in full costume dress.
“Baroque has been misjudged until recently as being unviable dramatically and musically for holding modern interest,” Florescu concludes. “They are very accessible. I would say that if your grandmother—or granddaughter—has never been to an opera, this is a painlessly engaging way to experience it.”
The Florentine Opera Company will perform Dido and Aeneas and Venus and Adonis, Jan. 26-28, in the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall, 123 E. State St. For tickets visit florentineopera.org.
