By Robert Croan Haydn’s six late-in-life settings of the Catholic Mass are outpourings of joy, reflecting the composer’s optimism and attitude towards life – even when, as in 1798, he labeled his Mass in D minor, “Mass in Troubled Times.” The “trouble” was Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, designed to interfere with his enemies’ trade routes, directly or indirectly … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire renders French Baroque superbly
By Robert Croan Welcome to Paris in the 1730s, during the reign of Louis XV. To open its 2023-24 season, Seraphic Fire, directed by Patrick Dupré Quigley, presented two rarely heard works from the period --- a sacred motet followed by extracts from an opera, each evoking the alleged splendors of the French court while providing a tantalizing glimpse into music that was … [Read more...]
Arts buzz: Boca Stage relocates, Cultural Council seeks ‘ambassadors’
Palm Beach ArtsPaper staff DELRAY BEACH — Boca Stage, the independent theater company founded by Keith Garsson, will relocate to the black box theater at the Delray Beach Playhouse in October. Boca Stage, formerly known as Primal Forces, has been notable for bringing offbeat, little-known plays to South Florida. Its past four seasons have been presented at the Sol … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire does right by cantatas of Bach
By Robert Croan Seraphic Fire’s third annual Enlightenment Festival – two weekend programs each performed in four South Florida venues – is devoted to the church cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, some of the most sublime music in the Western civilization canon. It’s also some of the most difficult music for present-day performers, technically and stylistically, but with … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire’s 20th opens with splendid Monteverdi, Coleridge-Taylor
By Marcio Bezerra One of the crown jewels of South Florida’s performing arts scene, the choral ensemble Seraphic Fire is celebrating its 20th season with a series of seven concerts that promises to be a real treat to its faithful followers. The celebration started at the highest level this past weekend with multiple performances of selections from Claudio Monteverdi’s … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire tackles challenge of Bach cantata program worthily
By Dennis D. Rooney One of the most memorable aspects of Seraphic Fire’s all-Bach program, which took place Feb. 27 at St. Gregory's Espicopal Church in Boca Raton, was the striking impression made by the large stained-glass sanctuary window behind the singers and players. Two Bach cantatas (Nos. 62 and 147) and the Mass in G minor (BWV 235), composed the program, which … [Read more...]
Splendid ‘Acis and Galatea’ closes Seraphic Fire’s Enlightenment Festival
By Robert Croan “Happy we!”/”Wretched lovers!”/”Galatea, dry they tears!” That’s the plot, in a nutshell, of Acis and Galatea, Handel’s pastorale opera, first performed in London in 1718, given a rare (and splendidly realized) revival by Seraphic Fire to conclude the group’s two-week Enlightenment Festival in South Florida. The shepherd Acis and the sea nymph … [Read more...]
Soloists enlighten Seraphic Fire’s secular Bach cantatas
By Robert Croan The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, gave rise to individual freedoms that we now take for granted, among them the revolutionary concepts of liberty, equality and brotherhood. The splendid South Florida vocal-instrumental ensemble Seraphic Fire, founded and directed by Patrick Dupré Quigley, is celebrating these ideals – no less timely … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire gives 12th-century mystic the respect she deserves
Posthumous fame came very late for the German abbess Hildegard of Bingen, but her rediscovery in the late 20th century some 800 years after she died has been a salutary achievement for the appreciation of early music and the music of women composers. That isn’t to say that Hildegard’s idiom, which consists of her own special style of plainchant, blends smoothly into the … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire’s women stellar in all-Vivaldi program
Late in his life, he was “an old man with a mania for composing,” but the Rev. Antonio Vivaldi’s musical productivity was also stoked by his decades of service on behalf of the conservatory-orphanage for girls and women known as the Ospedalle della Pietà in his native Venice. Novelists and filmmakers have been unable to resist the salacious possibilities of a red-haired … [Read more...]