What a treat is in store for the women of The Rose Ensemble.  This week we will be working with one of the most revered men of medieval performance practice, Benjamin Bagby and he guides us, instructs us and coaches us on medieval repertoire of Spain and Hildegaard Von Bingin in preparation for our upcoming concerts in the Fall.

Bagby is most recently known for his acclaimed interpretation of the medieval story of Beowulf.  Performed solo with Anglo Saxon harp, Benjamin leads us through the epic tale with a dramatic flair.

Well maybe not tonight (depending on when you’re reading this) but on Tuesday evening, July 6th.  I will be joined by local Twin Cities luminaries Maria Jette, Jim Bohn and Vern Sutton with Sonja Thompson on the piano as we present an evening of light operetta favorites.

Composers featured will include Gilbert & Sullivan, Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, Strauss and more.  This concert is the first of four presented in July and I hope to see you there!

For more about the Plymouth Summer Music Series, see the recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Glorious Revolution Baroque semi-staged a production of Dido & Aeneas last night to a sold out crowd in a small and intimate theater space in downtown St. Paul.  No sets, no fancy lights, but a wonderful small early music orchestra and very talented singers.

This was my first crack at The Sorceress and I loved the part.  How often can you stand up there with a custom made staff, a green velvet cape, a wild wig (not to mention some witchy minions) and take total command?  The intimacy of the space gave me the artistic freedom to interact with the audience and ‘stare’ them down as I made my way around the packed aisles.

I don’t have the opportunity to perform much in the theatrical arenas now that I sing primarily with The Rose Ensemble, so the chance to go all out with makeup, and push the character envelope was exhilarating.   She’s a force to be reckoned with, The Sorceress, and I’m thrilled I finally got to step into this role.

St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Bach premiered many of his works in a Leipzig coffee shop. Parties were often the first place you’d hear a new piece by Mozart or Schubert. So why not stage an opera in an artist’s loft in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood?

But Friday night’s performance by a little group called Glorious Revolution Baroque also boasted the talents of world-class soprano Ellen Hargis and brought one of America’s major early music violinists, David Douglass, to town to lead the orchestra. Within the cozy confines of Studio Z — a space best known as the home of local new music ensemble Zeitgeist — they performed a version of Henry Purcell’s 1689 chamber opera, “Dido and Aeneas,” that was minimally staged but very entertaining and ultimately quite moving, thanks to Hargis’ touching final aria.

Most of the performers in the Glorious Revolution Baroque production had ties to local early music choir the Rose Ensemble. While that group does some fine work, most of their concerts consist of standing and singing. So their members were clearly excited to sink their teeth into the theatricality of an opera, their dramatic moments conveyed convincingly, their comedic turns a delight.

Based on a tale from Virgil’s “Aeneid,” this short opera follows the brief and ill-fated love affair of the Queen of Carthage and a Trojan prince, one disrupted and ultimately destroyed by the trickery of witches. As English baroque operas go, it’s the unquestioned masterpiece, and the Glorious Revolution musicians deserve kudos for avoiding an over-earnest interpretation. Friday’s intimate performance was tremendously fun but never gave short shrift to the sadness that comes with a sense of irreversible destiny.
Despite all of the streets being blocked off around the Northwestern Building’s entrance (as utilities continue to make room for light rail), a sellout crowd of about 100 squeezed into Studio Z for this one-time-only performance. While a local church may have accommodated a larger audience, the “house concert” feel of this production was something to be treasured, especially when the building’s resonant marble hallways were used for a chorus that (literally) echoed the one onstage or bore Hargis’ haunting final notes from earshot.

Hargis’ subtly powerful performance was complemented well by Tim O’Brien’s strong yet vulnerable Aeneas and the rich emotional range within Carrie Henneman Shaw’s portrayal of Dido’s sister and confidant, Belinda. Shaw also pulled this impressive production together, assembling quite a talented cast. – Ron Hubbard

Video was shot, and hopefully I will be able to post some photos soon.  In the meanwhile, if you were at the show, drop me a line.  I would love your feedback!

Glorious Revolution Baroque presents this opera in an intimate setting at Studio Z in St. Paul, MN with David Douglass leading our esteemed instrumentalists.  Join us for one night only, Friday May 16th for an evening of delightful music by some of the Twin Cities most talented musicians.

Tickets are available online at Studio Z’s website

Here’s a little more info on the history and cast in this piece:

The Opera:

Henry Purcell (c. 1659 – November 21, 1695) composed Dido and Aeneas, a three-act English tragedy opera. The libretto was written by Nahum Tate in English, based on the Aeneid of Virgil. It was premiered in London, at Josias Priest’s School for Young Gentlewomen, on December 1689. The setting is in Carthage after the Trojan War.
The Characters:

Plot Summary / Synopses of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Prologue

Over the sea. The dance of the Tritons, nymphs and shepherds. The sphepherds, shepherdesses and nymphs welcome love and celebrate spring with joy.

Act 1. At the Palace

Dance of Dido’s Attendants

Dido’s confidante, Belinda, and her ladies-in-waiting assure her Aeneas loves her in return.

Act 2. At the Cave

Dance of sailors, enchantresses and fairies. Dance of Dido’s attendants to entertain.

A sorceress, jealous of Dido, plans to trick Aeneas into deserting Dido. The sorceress plans up a storm. Appearing to Aeneas in the likeness of Mercury, she orders him to sail for Italy instead.

Act 3. The Ships

Dance of sailors and enchantresses. Dance of Cupid.

The sorceress and her cohorts dance in triumph as they watch Aeneas prepare to depart. Aeneas offers to stay, but Dido sends him away. Hopeless, she surrenders to death.

One of the most asked questions is about rep.  Where can I find music written for contralto and what do you recommend?

Here is a list of the most popular pieces composed for contraltos:

Arias – Opera & Oratorio:

• Lullaby from the opera “The Consul” by Gian Carlo Menotti (English)
• Voce di donna from the opera “La Giocando” by Amilcare Ponchielli (Italian)
• Podrugi Milie from the opera “Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky (Russian)
• Alone and Yet Alive from the opera “The Mikado” by Gilbert & Sullivan (English)
• Stride la Vampa from the opera “Il Trovatore” by Verdi (Italian)
• Thy Hand Belinda from the opera “Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell (English)
• Va! Laisse couler mes larmes from the opera “Werther” by Massonet (French)
• Scherza Infida from the opera “Ariodante” by Handel (Italian)
• Parto, Parto from the opera “La Clemenza di Tito” by Mozart (Italian)
• Gelido in ogni vena from the opera “Il Farnace” by Vivaldi (Italian)
• Qui Sedes ad dextram Patris from the Vivaldi Gloria (Latin)
• Qui Sedes ad dextram Patris from Bach mass in B minor (Latin)
• Wie alles war (weiche, Wotan, weiche) from the opera “Das Rheingold” by Wagner (German)
• Merknyet Svyet Dnevnoy (Konchakavna’s Cantiva) from the opera “Prince Igor” by Borodin (Russian)

Art Song:

• Edward Elgar: Sea Pictures Op.37
• Henry Purcell: Fifteen Songs And Airs Set 1 (contralto Or Baritone)
• Dvorak: Biblical Songs
• Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
• Brahms: Zigeunerlieder (8 Gypsy Songs)

Do you have some favorites?  Add them to the list with your comments!

Click the play button below to hear some wonderful recordings!

My husband and I had a wonderful opportunity last evening thanks to the generosity of one of our friends, who Bob has named “the Divine Deb L.”  He wrote so eliquently in his blog about the evening that I thought I would share this with you as well.  Enjoy!

I love live theater. And Noel Coward is always entertaining. So, enjoying the largesse of the Divine Deb L., a lithe and sensous soprano who resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, a group of eight of us enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining evening of good acting and great writing watching Blythe Spirit at the Jungle Theater last night.bobwaynesweblog.com, WIT AND HUMOR – A FUNNY SITE BY BOB WAYNE

You should read the whole article.

A very nice review on our last concert of the season. Thanks to David Hawley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press who also acknowledged the fact that he could not stay for the 2nd half of the performance due to a deadline.

Legend has it that Palestrina, perhaps the most-recognized composer before Bach, dissuaded the 16th century Council of Trent from banning polyphony in church music by composing a six-voice Mass that was reverent and clear and — well, ethereal.

The Mass in question was Missa Papae Marcelli, dedicated to Pope Marcellus, a short-reigning pontiff (less than a month in 1555) who nonetheless is remembered for reprimanding the choir at St. Peter’s for what the Council of Trent later labeled as “impure or lascivious” elements of liturgy. Well, most musicologists debunk this story.

Even so, the Renaissance choral music of the Counter-Reformation — and, of course, of Palestrina — is the subject of a sublime series of concerts being given this weekend by St. Paul’s professional chamber choir, the Rose Ensemble, and a smaller British singing ensemble, Voces8.

To sit through an entire concert of sacred music from this period, especially when it is incomparably performed, is to be wrapped in an embrace. The different vocal parts may number six, eight, 12 or more, but the overarching style is smoothly curved, with generally stepwise melodic lines, regular rhythms and uncomplicated-sounding counterpoint. The effect is utter surety and serenity.

Instead of offering comparisons and contrasts, the Rose Ensemble and Voces8 combine for most of the concert — with the exception of short opening numbers by each group. I suspect the two groups have specific vocal characteristics when doing their own repertoire but together they form a formidably precise choir of 21 voices.
The program includes works by Palestrina and a number of his contemporaries, including the more dramatic Giovanni Gabrieli, Gregorio Allegri, Tomas-Luis de Victoria (a Spaniard, but still second only to Palestrina in the Roman school) and Tomaso Graziani.

Also on the program is a work by the important transition composer, Claudio Monteverdi, who would bring Italy into the Baroque era. Unfortunately, a news deadline prevented me from hearing Monteverdi’s “Cantate Domino” and some other works at the tail end of the concert.

The program also included two all-female performances of plainchant, the basis for most of the more than 100 Masses that Palestrina wrote. To hear the beauty of these single-line melodies is to experience an otherworldly beauty that reaches back nearly a thousand years.

If you would like to hear one of the chants sung by the women of The Rose Ensemble, click here: Os justi

Let’s face it: History lessons aren’t always fun. Too often, an artistic event that strives toward historical accuracy leaves you feeling educated but not really entertained. Shoring up some cracks in your knowledge base can be worthwhile but seldom extremely enjoyable.

However, one of those infrequent occurrences happened Sunday afternoon when St. Paul-based early-music group the Rose Ensemble welcomed the Music in the Park Series back to its home neighborhood, the freshly repaved St. Anthony Park. But the chamber choir didn’t perform the music on which its reputation is based — motets and madrigals of the medieval and Renaissance eras — instead focusing upon 19th-century American folk hymns and carols, many of them rooted in the Shaker and shape-note traditions.

It may not have been right up the group’s stylistic alley, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, a combination of uplifting church service and holiday hootenanny. Performing in a venue ideally intimate for this music — the woody St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ — the group let reverence segue into celebration, unleashing their accompanying instrumentalists on tunes that sounded increasingly country, Celtic and Cajun as the concert went on.

The Rose Ensemble is known for its harmonic skills, but Sunday’s performance was an exceptional showcase for the talents of each of its members, showing the choir to be the sum of some impressive parts. Like Lisa Drew’s powerful low alto voice on “Pretty Home,” bass Scott Sandersfeld booming out “The Babe of Bethlehem,” or soprano Kim Sueoka soaring above some cowboy-campfire-style strumming on “Peace and Joy.”The latter was but one of many star turns for the accompanying instrumentalists. Ginna Watson turned in the baroque violin she plies so capably for a full-fledged fiddle, transporting listeners to an Irish pub, a Bayou roadhouse and an Appalachian back porch in relatively quick succession. David Burk was equally adaptable to the variety of styles, most impressively when his rustic banjo — a hybrid of African and American traditions — took flight with an extended improvisation on “Cold Frosty Morning.”

After a tour of Germany, the Rose Ensemble will return to the Twin Cities — and to the music for which they’re known — performing “Elizabethan Christmas” concerts Dec. 18-20.

Germany Tour

We leave Wednesday for an 8 day tour in Germany beginning with a concert in Dachau on Saturday night at the Castle and then off to Neuss.  Similar to the Twin Cities of  St. Paul and Minneapolis, Neuss and Dusseldorf are Twin Cities separated by the Rhine.  We will be there next week in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Neuss and St. Paul and will be greeted with a reception in the City Hall followed by a concert at the St. Quirinus Cathedral the following evening.  This is our second visit to Neuss and we are looking forward to reconnecting with friends from our previous tour.

As always, I look forward to reading your comments!

Thank you for supporting The Rose Ensemble!

It’s not every day that an opportunity to benefit non-profits in Minnesota arises, but tomorrow is our opportunity.  Give to the Max Day is from 8:00 a.m. on November 17, 2009 until 8:00 a.m. on November 18, 2009. Every donation made during Give to the Max Day will receive a portion of the $500,000 match. This means the exact amount matched per dollar donated will be determined after Give to the Max Day conclude.

It’s easy – log on to www.givemn.org

In the blue DONATE box, type in The Rose Ensemble and hit enter (you may have to click on the The Rose Ensemble logo to continue to our page)

You will be brought to our page where you can select your level of giving, anywhere from $10 on up.  We also have an small informative video about what The Rose Ensemble does to better your understanding of our organization.

Our goal is simple.  500 people to donate $10.  That’s it!  So mark you calendar for tomorrow, November 16th and click on this link:  http://givemn.razoo.com/story/The-Rose-Ensemble

Your donations keep great musicians working – thank you for your support!

Give to the Max Day – Frequently Asked Questions

What is Give to the Max Day?

Give to the Max Day is a giving stimulus plan created to increase giving to non profits across Minnesota on November 17, 2009. Our goal is to raise as much money as possible for Minnesota charities in 24 hours. The Saint Paul Foundation, Minneapolis Foundation and Bush Foundation have committed $500,000 in matching contributions to support community needs in Minnesota and to cover transaction fees so that 100% of all donations go to the nonprofit organizations.

How do the matching contributions work?

Give to the Max Day is from 8:00 a.m. on November 17, 2009 until 8:00 a.m. on November 18, 2009. Every donation made during Give to the Max Day will receive a portion of the $500,000 match. This means the exact amount matched per dollar donated will be determined after Give to the Max Day concludes. We will divide the $500,000 of matching funds by the total donations.

Examples of how the matching dollars will work: if Give to the Max Day inspires $500,000 in donations, we will provide $1 in matching funds per dollar donated to an organization; if Give to the Max Day inspires $2,000,000 in donations, we will provide $.25 in matching funds per dollar donated to an organization.

What are the other incentives offered on Give to the Max Day?

The three nonprofits that receive donations from the most individual donors will receive cash prizes: $5,000 for first prize, $2,500 for second, and $1,000 for third.

Who can participate in Give to the Max Day?

Any individual may donate. Donations through the GiveMN.org site to nonprofit organizations are tax deductible and irrevocable (donations will not be refunded.)  Only contributions to Minnesota based nonprofits through the GiveMN.org site will be matched.   Contributions may be made via credit card only.

What organizations are eligible to receive funds?

Minnesota-based nonprofit organizations listed on GiveMN.org and its sister website, Razoo.com, are eligible to receive matching funds. All organizations listed on GuideStar are listed on GiveMN.org.

How much of the donation will go to the nonprofit?

GiveMN funding partners will cover all transaction fees to ensure that 100% of the donations will go to the nonprofit organization. Credit card transactions will be processed by Network for Good at a rate of 4.75%.

Is there a fee to participate?

There is no fee for an organization to participate in Give to the Max Day.

Is there a minimum donation?

The minimum credit card donation on GiveMN.org is $10.

Is there a maximum donation?

There is no maximum donation limit on GiveMN.org.

Is there a limit to the amount an organization can receive on Give the Max Day?

There is no maximum to the amount an organization may receive.

Is there a maximum match amount?

Individual donation transactions greater than $2,500 will be eligible for matching gifts up to $2,500 only. For example, if a donor makes a $2,500 donation to an organization, the full $2,500 will be eligible to receive a portion of the matching funds. If instead she donated $10,000 to an organization, only $2,500 would be eligible to receive a portion of the matching dollars.

How can an organization receive donations?

If you are registered on GuideStar, you are already listed on GiveMN, so you don’t need to do anything. If not, contact MAP for nonprofits at 651.393.2170 or givemn@mapfornonprofits.org.

How will an organization know who has donated to them?

Organizations who have registered with GiveMN or Razoo can track donations in real time online. To find out how to request administrative rights, go to GiveMN.org and follow the instructions. Organizations will also receive donor acknowledgement information with your Network for Good check, unless the donor has requested that their gift remain anonymous.