Photo: Bob Clair
Monteverdi Scenes!
The NYCC Spring 2012 Project will be a staged workshop production of selected scenes from Claudio Monteverdi’s extant three operas, L’Orfeo (1607), Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (1639), and L’Incoronazione di Poppea (1642).
The project itself (all singers and instrumentalists report for duty!) will get underway on Tuesday, March 6, with musical and staging rehearsals taking place Tuesday evenings thereafter. We will hold a dress rehearsal on Monday May 14, with performances taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, May 15-16, most probably at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.
This project will feature musical coaching and stage direction by Grant Herreid, Charlie Weaver, Paul Shipper, Pat O'Brien, and Nell Snaidas. Leah Nelson will coach the Sinfonia and Ritornello violin band.
The Collective meets on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 to 10:00 PM at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, 308 West 46th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), 2nd Floor Lounge (buzz "18" on the intercom).
Tuition for the project will be $400; adjustments to be made for those who participated in either the theory and harmony, or ornamentation classes in January and February. The usual scholarship and sliding scale rules apply.
The goals of the workshop are: to gain performance experience in early opera; offer insights into the poetry, dramatic design and compositional process of Monteverdi and his librettists; explore the stylistic and expressive use of ornamentation; gain fluency in period gesture and movement; develop basso continuo skills and expressive accompaniment.
For more information, contact ContinuoNY@aol.com, or see the FAQs under Administrative Matters, above.