Événement

The Little Sweep: Benjamin Britten Centennial

New York-based ensemble enCANTA Collective presents The Little Sweep: Benjamin Britten Centennial at 5:00 pm on Sunday, April 14, at All Saints Church, 230 East 60th Street, NYC. Open to children and adults of all ages, the concert celebrates the centennial year of Benjamin Britten, featuring worksOn this Island, op.11; Canticle III: Still Falls the Rain, op. 55; and one-act chamber opera The Little Sweep, op.45. Performers include sopranos Katherine Copland, Jessica Doolan, Lauren Frankovich, Jessi Goebel, Brittany Palmer, Rachel Policar, Nina Riley; mezzo-soprano Kiri Parker; tenors Christopher Sierra, Eric Richard Werner; baritones Greg Hoyt, Gerald Yarbray; hornist Valerie Sly; pianist Nobuko Amemiya; choreographer/actor Danielle Harper; and stage director Katherine Carter.

Benjamin Britten, 1913-76, one of the greatest composers in the twentieth century, established distinctive status nationally and internationally, reflecting the wartime England and his fiercely personal interests in gender, race, religion and pacifism. Among his achievements, Britten revived the English opera, founding institutions to ensure the continuing viability of musical drama, and outreached to a wider audience, particularly children, to increase British national musical literacy. He consciously stayed accessible as a composer, developing a distinctive tonal language, communicative with listeners. British pianist Graham Johnson describes Britten as an eloquent setter of the words where the entire musical character springs from. In this program, the evocative words by W. H. Auden, Edith Sitwell and Eric Crozier, inspirationally connected to the composer's inner feeling, are vividly embodied in music, with intense passion and conviction underneath the sonority. With the keen musical ear and dramatic eye of artistic director Nobuko Amemiya, this enCANTA musical celebration of Benjamin Britten Centennial promises to be moving and rich.

"Let the Florid Music Praise!" opens the song cycle On This Island, with Purcellian dignity and buoyancy. "As it is, Plenty," the finale of the cycle has a jazz-influenced lightheartedness, under ironic overtones of the textual content. Canticle III, Still Falls the Rain: The Raids 1940, Night and Dawn, dedicated to the memory of the Australian young pianist Noel Mewton-Wood, is scored for tenor, horn, and piano, based on the poem by Sitwell. After the London Blitz and disillusions of World War II, the dark verse speaks surrealistically of the failure of mankind and of the yet unconditional love of God. To convey the angular emotions and intense spirituality, Britten applies the abstract twelve-tone tonal structure blended in the form of Theme and Variations. The Little Sweep is a one-act comic opera, which the librettist Crozier and Britten created for the second Aldeburgh Festival as an entertainment for young people. The story is inspired by two poems by William Blake, "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, rooted in the indictment of conventional churches, government, child labor, and British class system. Britten and Crozier twisted the Blake story into a witty rescue opera with the brightness of music and morale. Director Katherine Carter captures subtle hints of humor, tenderness, and dynamics, creating a chaming stage treat.

Tickets are available at here or by phone 917-397-0129; at the door (limited number) for $20/10 seniors & students. All Saints Church is located at 230 East 60th Street between Third and Second Avenue. For more information, please contact encantacollective@gmail.com or visit www.encantacollective.com.