Going Deeper

Purchase your subscriptions here:

Love in Venice

The Song Company with guest artists Tommie Anderson (Lute/Theorbo/Guitar) and Laura Vaughan (Lirone/Gamba)

A hilarious comedy set in the waters of Venice which tells the story of an unlikely encounter — complemented by nine mind blowing madrigals. Prepare to laugh and fall in love.

Venice’s power at sea once seemed indestructible. For centuries, the city’s economic super status was reflected through an incredible flowering of the arts, demonstrated in painting and in music. The palaces and churches alongside its famous canals became the repositories of extraordinary work; to this day the envy of the world.

For this all-Venetian extravaganza, Roland Peelman has selected nine beautiful madrigals by Monteverdi as counterpart to Banchieri’s 1623 ‘Boat from Venice to Padua’. This hilarious and early musical comedy sees the Song Company expertly flit between a set of dubious commedia characters who share an encounter on a small boat.

Program

• Claudio Monteverdi (1567 — 1643) Erotic madrigals
• Antonio Banchieri (1568 — 1634) A boat from Venice bound for Padua

Duration: 100 minutes including interval.

Dates

Tears of Peter (St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt, Sydney only)

The Song Company with guest artist Satsuki Odamura (koto)

“This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times”

Matthew 26: 34

This Easter, witness one of the greatest musical achievements of the 16th century fully re-imagined featuring the evocative sounds of the Japanese koto.

A new Easter project presented in the superb vaults of St Mary’s crypt is this production of Lassus’ last opus, an intricate cycle of twenty-one spiritual madrigals and one of the greatest musical achievements of all times. Written for seven voices and dedicated to Pope Clement VIII, three weeks before the composer’s death in 1594, the work depicts the stages of grief experienced by Peter after his denial of Christ.

Traditional koto music from Japan, as played by Satsuki Odamura, adds a contemporary human counterpoint to this masterpiece of the past.

Subscribers from around Australia are invited to select this concert as a fourth concert in their 2012 package. Please note this concert can only be selected as part of a four concert package. Seating is limited and single tickets to this event may not be available

Program

• Orlando di Lasso (1532 — 1594) Lagrime di San Pietro — Tears of St Peter
• Satsuki Odamura music for koto

Duration: 70 minutes without interval.

Dates

Purchase single tickets for Tears of Peter here

Sunken Dreams

The Song Company with guest artist Claire Edwardes (vibraphone/water percussion)

Two halves, two very unique and contrasting performances that fuse contemporary and classical music influences, prepare to drift away.

Monet’s paintings of waterlilies are as iconic as Debussy’s delicately traced musical miniatures. In Sunken Dreams we delve into the heart of European impressionism using six voices and the liquid sounds of the vibraphone played by Claire Edwardes.

Genuine water percussion, including the rare waterphone and submerged gongs, form the context for a classic work by New Zealander Jack Body. His beautifully balanced sequence of lullabies and dreams breathes the wind of the Pacific and was specially conceived for the Song Company.

Program

• Claude Debussy (1862 — 1918) Selection of Preludes and Songs including Claire de Lune, Golliwogs Cakewalk, La Cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral) and others.
• Peter Sculthorpe (b.1929) Maranoa Lullaby
• Jack Body (b.1944) Lullabies, Dreams and a Nightmare

Duration: 105 minutes with interval.

Dates

Ship to Shore

The Song Company with guest artists Slava and Leonard Grigoryan (Guitar)

Ship to Shore features the extraordinary talents of the Grigoryan Brothers in a spirited performance for the end of the year.

The brothers Grigoryan are stellar performers. Seamlessly crossing the boundaries of classical and popular guitar styles, they are the perfect collaborators for this rollicking, swashbuckling program of shanties and songs about the sea.

From the coast of Newfoundland to the shores of Ireland and from the ports of Portugal to the sundrenched beaches of Brazil, the men that laboured on the tall ships were expected to sing. Back home, the women left behind found their own expression for loss and longing.

This concert contains some of the most memorable sea shanties written as well as adaptations of classic sea songs and a variety of music from around the seafaring world.

Program

• Nick Cave, Ship Song
• Fado Songs from Portugal, Caetano Veloso, Marinheiro Song
• Sea shanties, a selection from England, Ireland, Holland and Canada

Duration: 100 minutes including interval.

Dates

Sweet Dreams

A sensory experience for the whole family. The Song Company with Stephen Mushin.

The Song Company has joined forces with shadow puppeteer Stephen Mushin to develop a story of dreams and imagination. Using simple silhouette forms Stephen will create a technically remarkable and visually spectacular theatre performance.

Sweet Dreams includes songs, carols, lullabies and stories from composers around the world including Peter Warlock, Jack Body, Elena Kats-Chernin and Annie Lennox. This moving and wonderfully innocent sensory experience will draw you in and leave you spellbound.

Waltzing Matilda

A collection of traditional and contemporary music which pays homage to Australia’s colonial heritage. Presented by Blue Mountains Concert Society. For tickets visit www.bmconcerts.com.au or phone 1800 984 460.

Saturday 27th August 2011 at 8pm

Springwood Civic Theatre

Time Traveller – A musical map of the world

A musical map of the world

Pack your bags and head to the departure lounge, the Song Company is taking you on a journey of musical exploration and discovery. Time Traveller creates a musical map of the world with a collection of stories and songs from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, by composers who chronicled the changing view of the world. Celebrating music from around the globe and across the ages, Time Traveller transports you to musical destinations in time and space.

Program
Ayo visto mappamundi (Sicilian folksong, anonymous)
Gloria from Missa ‘ayo vista mappamundi’, Johannes Cornago (ca 1470)
Asia-Africa-Europa, Andrea Gabrieli (1510-1586)
Thule, the period of cosmography, John Weelkes (1576-1623)
Selection of songs, Francesco Guerrero (1528-1599)
Voltaire from ‘The Dream of Plato’ Airs a gogo, Frank Nuyts (1994, revised 2009)
Going to Sichuan Province, trad. Chinese arr. Na Lin Shen Feng Yang Flower Drum, trad. Chinese arr. Julian Yu Songs from the Torres Strait Islands, arr. Roland Peelman Two Peter Sculthorpe songs Selection of songs from the Americas and Australasia.