Concordian Dawn (9/19/24)

Le Roman de Fauvel

Amber Evans ~ soprano & percussion; Thomas McCargar ~ baritone; Niccolo Seligmann ~ vielle & percussion; Christopher Preston Thompson ~ director, tenor & harp

Le Roman de Fauvel is a fourteenth-century mish-mash of story telling and music—a precursor, I guess, to opera. What we got was a diluted mish-mash. As explained from the stage, we were to get a storyline from start to finish of Fauvel. The ending, at least, worked.

This scaled-down version gave us eighteen pieces. We got printed English translations, in modern-day English, of the French. We also got English commentary between some of the eighteen pieces—not necessarily helpful.

All of the performers were stellar. And there were solos (unaccompanied), small group performances (tenor, vielle, baritone, tambourine), soprano and vielle—oh, what's that, you ask? It's a stringed instrument that seems to bridge the gap between a viola and a cello, played upright like a cello, but smaller—oh, and it can also be strummed like a guitar. Hmm, I guess that wasn't too helpful. Go to your rabbit holes now. And there was at least one movement that included all four performers.

The harpist (it was a relatively small, hand-held instrument) also sang while playing, sometimes.

We got to the meat of this interpretation of the sprawling work in movement ten. A duet between Fortune (female) and Fauvel* (male). It doesn't work out well for him. We were told from the beginning that the piece would be performed straight through but that we could applaud at any time we wanted to. We waited until the end. There was humor, there was drama, and there was farce. The percussion included the aforementioned tambourine and what I think was a hand-held cymbal (single-level seating made it difficult for me to see) and maybe a triangle. Oh, and the final piece ended with "This song needs to drink." I'll drink to that.

This was a great beginning to an early music concert series. I'm not sure I'll attend every week, but I have the first half listings, so I can pick and choose.

*Fauvel is described as an orange-hued half-donkey/half-human whose contentious rise to power unsettles a nation, serving as an allegory ... I'll just let this sit here.

ConcertMeister