7.3.08
Jacob's Pillow Gala makes the New York Sun
Mysterious Zelig shows up in front-page photo
7.1.08
MONTREAL DIARY
Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival
7.1.08
WTF's NICHOLAS MARTIN TO HEADLINE FREE FORUM
[PRESS RELEASE] New WTF leader at Triplex, Sunday, July 13, 11 a.m., for REST OF THE STORY
6.27.08
[DANCE REVIEW] Mark Morris at Tanglewood
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
6.24.08
Passenger air travel on brink of collapse
System headed for full-metal breakdown by end of year
6.24.08
Gas prices may usher in era of New Urbanism
Suburbs collapsing from internal contradiction of life built around cars, highways, and cheap gas
6.24.08
Ian McEwan joins Martin Amis in speaking out against Islamism
Rare writers willing to take a politically incorrect stand
6.24.08
BTF's Kate Maguire speaks at forum on Sunday, June 29
REST OF THE STORY event at Triplex Cinema
9.13.07
YOGA to be focus of forum on September 23
Berkshire Living's REST OF THE STORY event at the Triplex
6.19.08
New Mamet One-Act to Debut at Mahaiwe
[PRESS RELEASE] Benefit Performance for Berkshire Playwrights Lab June 25
6.19.08
[FILM REVIEW] ROMAN DE GARE
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
6.16.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Jen Chapin at Club Helsinki
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
6.18.08
[DANCE REVIEW] Garth Fagan collaborates with Wynton Marsalis at Jacob's Pillow
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
6.17.08
Cafe Latino to celebrate opening of gallery, downtown arts festival
[PRESS RELEASE] Restaurant at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., to display Latino artwork
6.17.08
Cafe Latino to celebrate opening of gallery, downtown arts festival
[PRESS RELEASE] Restaurant at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., to display Latino artwork
|
Crescendo Choir presents world premiere November 9
10.31.07
CRESCENDO TO PRESENT A "DANCE OF DEATH" WORLD PREMIERE
AT CONCERTS IN GREAT BARRINGTON AND LAKEVILLE NOV. 9, 10
LAKEVILLE, CT."How can there be a world premiere in 2007 of a work written more than 70 years ago? Because Hugo Distler’s haunting "Totentanz" ("Dance of Death"), Op. 12/1 (1934), has never before received the full multimedia treatment it will get when the Crescendo Choir and Bard College at Simon’s Rock present it"appropriately"shortly after Halloween. The performances will bring to life--with music, dance and animation--the work’s inspiration: A medieval fresco lost to the bombs of World War II.
The Distler work sets to music 14 motets about life and death, with speakers portraying Death and other allegorical characters. The Crescendo Choir and soloists will perform it in front of an animated projection of a medieval Dance of Death mural in St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck, Germany, that was destroyed in the 1940s. John Myers, a faculty member of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and artist Alice Myers painstakingly recreated and animated the 1460 Lübeck mural assisted by Danish scholar Martin Hagstrøm. Wendy Shifrin, also a Simon’s Rock faculty member, has created choreography to Distler’s music for 13 student dancers.
Other works on the program are Distler’s motet "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," Op. 12/6, and the Leonhard Lechner motet "Deutsche Sprüche über Leben und Tod" (1606), a meditation on life and death that also inspired Distler’s "Totentanz."
The program will conclude with two other variations on "Wachet auf," the joyful Lutheran hymn for All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2), Johann Sebastian Bach’s prelude for organ, BWV 645, and the well-known chorale from his Cantata 140.
Soprano soloists from Chorus Angelicus, based in Torrington, Conn., will also participate, along with flutist Rodrigo Tarraza, of Lenox, Mass. German conductor Christine Gevert of Lakeville, Conn. is also artistic director of the project.
Crescendo is a music performance organization based at Trinity Episcopal Church, 484 Lime Rock Rd., Lakeville. The concerts are scheduled for Friday, November 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 251 Main Street (Route 7), in Great Barrington, Mass. and Saturday, November 10, at 5 p.m. in Lakeville. Tickets are $25, $10 for children, and in Great Barrington at the door, $5 for Simon’s Rock students. For information, call 860-435-4866.
The performance will also be recorded on DVD for presentation in March 2008 in Florence, Italy, at the annual convention of the European Cultural Association of the Danse Macabre.
|
