Fervour and Fantasy
- Aug 8
- 2 min read
Friday’s concert is sure to generate much interest and excitement from Victoria music lovers, since it marks a welcome return to her native city by soprano Rachel Allen, who is enjoying a blossoming career from her current base in London, England.
The program will showcase Rachel, with the Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble directed by Marc Destrubé, performing sacred and secular cantatas by composers of the Spanish Baroque era. The music is florid, fervent and fantastical, offering singer and listener alike the challenges and delights of highly ornamented vocal pyrotechnics that soar to the heights and plumb the depths of human emotion.
Rachel Allen first appeared in our Festival as a member of the Victoria Children’s Chorus. Now, she is in great demand internationally for her interpretations of Baroque repertoire, singing the title roles in such masterworks as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea, and Blow’s Venus and Adonis. Critics rave about the “great tenderness” and “seductive power” of her performances!
Though influenced by the musical trends of 17th Century Italy and France, Spain developed its own unique musical idioms, which also travelled to the New World with the conquistadors and missionaries. One of the cantatas on this program was discovered a mere 25 years ago in the archives of the cathedral of Guatemala City. Another is from the pen of Domenico Scarlatti, who came from Naples to work at the royal court in Madrid.
This very special concert is a wonderful opportunity for those of us who may be less familiar with the music of this time and place to explore its rich complexities and experience its beguiling pleasures, brought vividly to life by six highly skilled instrumental specialists and one supremely gifted vocalist.
Tickets are on sale now for all four Pacific Baroque Festival concerts, running from Wednesday, February 25 through Saturday, February 28!
Please join us also for the Festival’s Choral Evensong service on Sunday, March 1 – a free-will offering event.
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