Les Delices’ New Concert Centers Around Aesop’s Fables

Thu 2/18-Mon 3/1

Cleveland-based chamber ensemble Les Delices debuts it first regular concert of 2021 week, when Games and Grounds launches online Thursday February 18.

The program features musical versions of Aesop’s Fables, which enjoyed huge popularity in 17th– and 18th-century France as exemplars of moral instruction. That inspired plays, works of art and musical compositions.

The pieces Les Delices will perform are based on fables published in France in the early 1730s, set to then popular tunes. They include “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” which encouraged saving for a rainy day, “The Tortoise and the Hare,” which praised dogged persistence before overeagerness, “The Lion and the Rat,” with a moral about relying on each other, and “The Tortoise and the Eagle,” denying the facile claim that “you can do anything if you believe you can.”

The concert features tenor Jason McStoots and soprano/dancer Elena Mullins, with tunes interspersed with ground bass variations by Jean-Féry Rebel, Marin Marais, Jean-Philippe Rameau and more. They join musicians Debra Nagy (oboe), Julie Andrijeski (violin), Rebecca Reed (viola da gamba) and Mark Edwards (harpsichord).

The concert will be available for listening through Monday March 1; the debut evening includes a live post-concert Q&A with some of the artists. On Sunday February 22, there’s an online “closing reception,” with an additional live performance.  Tickets are $20, $8 for students.

lesdelices.org/event/games-grounds/

 

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