Latest news with #DidoAndAeneas
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Arts Picks: DnA Fest, Hannes Schmid, NLB Read30
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Dido & The Belindas by T:>Works was first shown as a work-in-progress during Singapore International Festival of Arts 2024. T:>Works' DnA Fest Singapore theatre vanguard T:>Works is marking its 40th anniversary with 11-day DnA Fest. The acronym is short for English composer Henry Purcell's Dido And Aeneas, but the classic 17th-century opera of spurned love has been wrenched in radical directions. Artistic director Ong Keng Sen reframes the lament to tackle mortality, inclusivity and, more rambunctiously, drag and underground ballroom culture. There are three parts to his maximalist vision, with tickets available separately. First is a film The House Of Janus, which premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2024. Ong directed it in his Italian hillside home in Bettona with an international crew. His homestead with his nonagenarian partner, Adriaan van der Staay, becomes the setting for a reckoning with old age and separation, immersing viewers in the clashing aesthetics of cinema verite and operatic fantasy. Dido And Aeneas was the first opera the partners listened to together in the house 16 years ago, and remains a summer tradition. Second is an extension of T:>Works' work-in-progress presentation at the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2024, an unabashedly theatrical twist on the original Dido And Aeneas story. Dido's rejection becomes a defiant statement from a place of social marginalisation. Drag queen Becca D'Bus is Dido, queen of Carthage. Her handmaid, Belinda, proliferates to become the Belindas, a whole 'tribe of the abandoned'. Ong reserves some surprises here in its composition. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump's ambassador nominee to Singapore Anjani Sinha has a rough day at Senate hearing Asia Dr Mahathir at 100: Still haunted by the Malay Dilemma Singapore What's next for PSP following its post-GE leadership shake-up? Singapore 'Give a positive review': Hidden AI prompt found in academic paper by NUS researchers Singapore NDP 2025: Diamond formations, 'multi-axis' fly-past to headline parade's aerial display Business New Career Health SG initiative launched to support both S'pore workers and employers Multimedia 60 objects to mark SG60: Which is your favourite? Singapore Apex court upholds SMC's conviction of doctor who gave patients unapproved hormones This is a fully fledged production, with live singing by lyric tenor Thomas Michael Allen and party atmosphere supplied by DJ Toru Yamanaka. Late-night parties that centre the glamour of trans and queer culture with runway competitions and high energy voguing – dancers striking poses inspired by those of models in fashion magazines – is the final piece of the trilogy. Ong says DnA Fest is about building solidarities. 'Nightlife and voguing are very separate from the theatre scene, but we need to have more alliances, to open up the space to talk about being at the margins without necessarily becoming agenda-full. There must be more in our lives apart from the mainstream.' Still from The House Of Janus. PHOTO: T:>WORKS Where: 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road MRT: Fort Canning When: July 16 to 26, various timings Admission: $12 for film, $40 for show, $25 (advance) and $30 at the door for night parties. Entry to all at $58 with DnA Pass Info: Hannes Schmid: A Life In Pictures For Gods Only series by Hannes Schmid on show at Appetite. PHOTO: MICHELLE MEI In 2001, Swiss photographer Hannes Schmid chanced upon a Taoist opera theatre in an open field in Punggol, where the actors insisted on playing to 100 empty chairs. Initially shooed away, he spent the next four years earning the troupe's trust until he was adjudged to have won the favour of the gods. His subsequent photo series, For Gods Only, offers a glimpse of the backstage and propitiation rituals of the since-disbanded troupe. These are overlaid with his Singaporean father-in-law's calligraphic Chinese characters, and are on display at restaurant, record lounge and art gallery Appetite in Amoy Street. The Swiss artist has led a storied life of immersing himself in his subjects. At a media preview, he regales listeners with stories about piercing his tongue for Thaipusam – 'I was bleeding like a pig' – and being held captive by cannibals in the mountains of now South Papua, Indonesia, when he went in search of American Michael Rockefeller, who vanished in Dutch New Guinea in 1961. Schmid's photos from another series, Blackstage, in which he photographed members of legendary bands AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, and another bringing together fashion and wildlife – think woman standing atop a herd of elephants – are also on show. Today, he spends much of his time fund-raising for the Cambodian commune he founded called Smiling Gecko, comprising farm, culture and music school, and spa, which has been labelled 'social art' for the way it uplifts local communities. Proceeds from the charity auction on Aug 2 will go to this project. Photo from Hannes Schmid's series combining fashion and wildlife. PHOTO: MICHELLE MEI Where: Appetite, 72A Amoy Street MRT: Maxwell/Telok Ayer When: Till Aug 10, from 6pm or by appointment, Tuesdays to Fridays; noon to midnight, Saturdays Admission: Free Info: NLB Read30 Visuals paired with book quotes are part of NLB's sensorial experiences for Read30. PHOTO: NLB To mark the National Library's 30th anniversary as a statutory board, it is hosting NLB Read30, a marquee edition of its biennial Read! Fest. Multi-sensory experiences have been created to ensure words leap off the page. Smell the world of C Pam Zhang's Land Of Milk And Honey or run your fingers over an installation inspired by Rachel Heng's The Great Reclamation at the National Library Building. The weekend will also usher in a charming market for literary accessories, including customised book sleeves and artisanal wares. Singaporean personalities like playwright Myle Yan Tay and celebrity chef Violet Oon have handpicked books for browsing and buying in eight pop-ups in central locations, from Ion Orchard to The Cathay. It is a good occasion to purchase that book you have been eyeing, with 10 per cent discounts on selected titles on the webstores of Closetful Of Books, Wormhole and Basheer Graphic Books. There is also a heavyweight panel at the National Library building on July 26 bringing together four current and former Singapore Writers Festival directors, titled The SWF Directors' Cut: Sing Lit, How Are You? This is free with registration at
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Purcell shaped classical music – here are the pieces that prove it
After the death of Henry Purcell in 1695, his friend the organist Henry Hall wrote a notable couplet: 'Sometimes a HERO in an Age appears/But scarce a PURCELL in a Thousand Years'. Unfortunately, the prediction turned into near-prophesy, as English music produced no-one to rival Purcell's genius, arguably until Elgar, 200 years later. Purcell died far too young at 36, but he had made his mark. His memorial in Westminster Abbey says that he has 'gone to that Blessed Place where only his Harmony can be exceeded', a stirring remembrance of a composer who changed the course of British music and continues to have a unique resonance for our time. Now, after a century of the early music revival, Purcell's stock as a reinventor of a truly British musical style has never been higher – but what does this have to tell us about his unique achievement? Take his dramatic music: no-one has written a lament of the depth and intensity of Dido's 'When I am laid in earth' from Dido and Aeneas, with its piercing cries of 'Remember me!'. No-one has written dance music of the exuberance and sophistication displayed in The Fairy Queen, with its bubbling rhythms and intoxicating energy. There are some very specific things which made Purcell a revolutionary in the English music of his era, but which also binds him securely to our own time. Here are some reasons he matters – and the music you should listen to. 1. Purcell was a musical magpie His style was cosmopolitan and outward-looking. Like all the best British composers, he drew inspiration from the melting-pot of styles around him. When you listen to the dazzling Passacaglia from King Arthur 'How happy the lover', its lilting triple time flow and endless variations over a repeated set of harmonies are clearly derived from the French passacaglias of Lully and his contemporaries. On the other hand, Purcell's trio sonatas reflect precisely the innovations of the Italian style that Corelli pioneered, with two violins contesting contrapuntally. Yet behind this is the English tradition of equal-voiced counterpoint that Purcell first explored in his chromatically adventurous Fantazias for viols, written when he was in his 20s: it's a distinctive, heady stylistic brew. Sonatas in 3 parts: Christopher Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music 2. Purcell enjoyed rumbustious fun There was no condescending snobbish division for him between the intense spiritual language of his church anthems like the sublime 'Remember not Lord our offences', and the bawdy catches he wrote for coffee and ale-houses – in which the texts of these rounds become ever more salacious the more vocal parts are added and the texts can be heard combined. Listen: Remember O Lord our offences/Simon Preston/Christ Church Cathedral Choir Purcell in Court and Tavern: Mark Brown/Pro Cantione Antiqua 3. Purcell loved a good tune He set English words better than anyone (maybe until Arthur Sullivan), and his melodies have a natural flow that was sensed by Benjamin Britten, who arranged many of them to sing with his partner Peter Pears. In the 1940s, Michael Tippett heard the countertenor Alfred Deller sing 'Music for a while shall all your cares beguile' and said that 'in that moment, the centuries rolled back'. What could be more perfectly shaped than the melody of 'If love's a sweet passion'? Or the descriptive melisma of 'I attempt from love's sickness to fly….'? Purcell songs realised by Britten: Allan Clayton/Joseph Middleton 4. Purcell knew how to sell his wares He grew up in the shadow of Westminster Abbey where his family worked, and never moved from the area (sadly, none of the places he lived survive, nor can exact addresses be found, so he has no Blue Plaque). As a young boy he survived the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666; he trained and sang as choirboy until his voice broke, when he repaired instruments and grew in composing skills, becoming Organist at the Abbey. He was determined to advance his own cause; his contemporary Thomas Tudway said that 'he had the most commendable ambition of exceeding everyone of his own time', an aim in which we may say he totally succeeded. There were bumps along the way: he was censured for selling places in the organ loft for the Coronation of William and Mary, making the large sum of £500 which he had to repay to the authorities. He formed a friendly alliance with the publisher John Playford and his son Henry, who sold music at the Inner Temple, and Purcell's wife Frances continued to publish and circulate his music, especially his songs, after his all-too-early death. A Purcell Songbook: Emma Kirkby/Anthony Rooley/Christopher Hogwood 5. Purcell was a master of his craft From his earliest years in Westminster he would have practised music and studied it every day of his life. His expressiveness, whether in complex counterpoint or simple melody, came from a total mastery of the musical techniques he had available to him. Nowadays there seems to be a scepticism that the study of musical notation, and harmonic practice, are necessary to composers. Yes, we value improvisation and spontaneity, and they were vital to Purcell's style, but for him they were built on the foundation of impeccable learning and constant practice. When we read in a contemporary account that the air 'Tis nature's Voice' in his Ode Hail bright Cecilia was 'sung with incredible graces by Mr Purcell himself', we can be sure that the elaboration and freedom applied to his music was based on fundamental mastery of the language. 6. Purcell provides one model for future music education When Benjamin Britten was commissioned to write after the Second World War what was then rather patronisingly called a 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', he chose a theme from Purcell's theatre music. It was a way of demonstrating, brilliantly, how it could be varied to show the character of all the different instruments of the orchestra, across strings, woodwind, brass, percussion and harp, building a tremendous fugue which is combined at the close with Purcell's melody – the piece is now more often known as the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. It could be the starting point for new explorations of contemporary music scoring in a new generation. Britten/Purcell Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Andrew Davis BBC SO 7. Purcell inspired future generations Britten and Tippett venerated Purcell at a time when they wanted to cast aside the legacy of the 20 th -century English pastoral tradition, which had been caricatured as the 'English cowpat' school of music depicting 'a cow looking over a gate'. Instead, they reached much further back in English musical history and Purcell's imprint can be heard in much of their work. Purcell later entered the world of techno music and film: Wendy Carlos took the hypnotic march from the Funeral Music for Queen Mary (with its hypnotic drum beats that had actually been added by their 20 th -century editor Thurston Dart) and turned it into a powerful piece for Moog synthesiser. That turned up as the scary opening music to the score for Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. One way or another, Purcell had achieved a place alongside the greats of Western music. Nicholas Kenyon, the Telegraph's Chief Opera Critic, gave the inaugural Purcell Lecture at the Stationers Hall, London this month
