Published: October 02, 2008 02:26 pm            

Ensemble Chaconne to perform at The Woods, ISU

The Ensemble Chaconne, performing music of Shakespearean plays, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Little Theatre in Guerin Hall on St. Mary-of-the-Woods campus and at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Recital Hall of Indiana State University’s Center for Performing and Fine Arts.

The ensemble is known for it concerts of Renaissance and Baroque music using period instruments. Members of the ensemble are Olav Chris Henriksen, lute and early guitar; Carol Lewis, viola de gamba; and Peter H. Bloom, Renaissance and Baroque flute.

In “Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare’s Plays,” they are joined by mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal. The concert showcases Dellal’s versatility in a variety of numbers from Shakespeare’s plays, ranging from love songs, comedic moments to madness and tragedy.

Commentary is woven throughout the program, providing historical, dramatic and literary contexts for the music.

Among the many selections performed in “Measure for Measure‚” are “The Willows Song,” sung by Desdemona before her murder in “Othello”; “It was a Lover and His Lasse,” from “As You Like It”; “O Mistress Mine,” from “Twelfth Night;” “Hark, Hark! The Lark,” from ”Cymbeline”; “Full Fathom Five” from “The Tempest”; “Greensleeves” from “The Merry Wives of Windsor”; and three numbers from the play “MacBeth.”

Celebrating its 23rd season, Ensemble Chaconne tours widely, appearing at venues such as Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall and performing at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s residency project at Davidson College. The ensemble’s performance of Shakespeare-era music also can be heard on an American Musicworks CD with the same name.

For more information about the concert at SMWC, call the college’s Music and Theatre Information Line at (812) 535-6211. For more information about the performance at ISU, call Keith Byerman, English department, at (812) 237-3208 or Randy Mitchell, music department at (812) 237-2771. More information about Ensemble Chaconne is available online at www.americas

musicworks.com

        

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