A Tempesta di Mare In Focus project
From 2014-2016 Tempesta presented a two-season exploration of French baroque orchestral music written for the theatre: Tragédie et Comédie. The project comprised seven distinct concert programs, two commercial CD recordings, touring performances, participatory workshops and concert recordings for radio broadcast.
French Style—one of the pillars of baroque music—remains underperformed relative to its historic importance, especially in America. Our project aimed to level that playing field.
The project was supported by project grants from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, The William Penn Foundation and The Presser Foundation. Media sponsorship was provided by Cancer Treatment Centers for America.
Blog Post: Audio Books
Fantaisie’s fools
“Picture yourself at a show of slapstick humor and hilarious escapades, as servants, masters, lovers, and fools gallop around the stage with Kusser’s music filling the air…” Rafael Schneider, who studied Commedia dell’Arte at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy, shares his thoughts on the art form. Read more about the roots of commedia dell’arte and its impact on pop culture today.
Real Characters
“A whole new energy entered European music in the 1600’s, and at least some of it came from the stage. The theater scene was exploding and performers everywhere, from street performers to court entertainers, were polishing the kind of quick-draw character portrayals that we recognize today…” Read more to learn about character music and how musicians use it to push boundaries.
Apollo on the road
Louis XIV was fifteen when he met Jean-Baptiste Lully… Anne Schuster Hunter takes us on a journey to the western world’s largest stages. “Soon the entire continent and, of course, the British Isles and colonies, were gliding and lilting, bowing and courtseying to French dances like chaconnes, gavottes, menuets, and gigues.” Read More.
Project Performances
- November 2013 — Holiday in Paris: Telemann’s musical vacation
Chamber music by the happy traveler and his hosts Blavet, Forqueray, Guignon and Guillemain. - January 2014 — A Secret Flame: songs for Versailles, with Aaron Sheehan
Songs and chamber music by Lully, Charpentier and Lambert from the time of Louis XIV, including scenes from Actéon and Le Marriage forcé. - March 2014— Apollo at Play: Lully and his musical legacy.
Lully’s music for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme* (1670), a suite from Apollon Enjoué (1700) by Lully-student Johann Sigismund Kusser, and a neo-baroque homage to Lully, the ballet Apollon Musagète (1928) by Igor Stravinsky. - June 2014 — Elements: orchestral riffs on earth, air, fire and water
A suite from the opera Alcyone* (1706) by the lulliste Marais, the ballet Les Éléments* (1737) by the post-Lullian composer Rebel, and Telemann’s French style suite Hamburger Ebb’ und Flut (1723). - March 2015 —Purcell, Charpentier & the zarzuela
Orchestral music for comedies from England (Henry Purcell: The Double Dealer (1693)), France (Charpentier’s music for Le Malade Imaginaire* (1673)) and Spain. - April 2015 — Bourgeois & Bernier
Chamber cantatas about Orpheus, coffee and other heroes with soprano Rosa Lamoreaux - June 2015 —Rameau and Leclair
French orchestral music for the theater: Leclair’s Scylla et Glaucus* (1746) and Rameau’s ballet Les Fêtes de Polymnie* (1745).
* denotes repertoire on the project’s CD releases