Thu 4/7-Sun 4/10
The splendid musicians and fearless dancers of Apollo’s Fire offered “A Harlequin Romance” last Sunday at Baldwin Wallace University, the final night of a four-day run at various area venues. They showed us what musical theater 18th-century style might have been like when baroque music enjoyed huge popularity. That is — fun.
It was a lively, involving performance (and not a museum piece). Jeannette Sorrell, director and guiding light of Apollo’s Fire, conducted (sometimes from a baroque harpsichord mounted high enough that she could play standing up).
Opening with Jean-Baptiste Lully’s “Chaconne des Scaramouches et Arlequins,” the ensemble introduced us to commedia dell’arte’s Harlequin, the light-hearted servant who loves Colombine, who is married to Pierrot. Shifting from Harlequin to Pierrot to Turkish schemer Mezzetino with evident ease, guitarist Steven Player displayed comic talent along with serious dance chops. He was paired with violinist Julie Andrijeski who mugged, danced and made us love her as Colombine, the flighty and comic miss who might also have a tiny crush on Scaramouche (concertmaster Olivier Brault).
In addition to Lully’s works there were excerpts from Handel’s Terpsichore (Il Pastor fido) and Telemann’s Overture Burlesque (which gave Harlequin and his pals amusing individual spotlights).
Olivier Brault and Johanna Novom paired up for a dazzling rendition of J. S. Bach’s complex and demanding Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins. Selections from Telemann’s Don Quixote Suite provided another magical instrumental piece with its mimetic recreations of attacks on windmills, sighs of love and most especially, “Sancho Panza tossed on a blanket.”
Bottom Line: As ever, Apollo’s Fire brought fine music, beautifully presented, in a way that shows why some music seemingly lives forever.
[Written by Laura Kennelly]Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH 44017