This Weekend, Upper Valley Baroque presents a unique work by Handel, with texts based on John Milton and William Shakespeare. Helen Lyons spoke with artistic director Filippo Ciabatti and soprano Amanda Forsythe to learn more.
TRANSCRIPT
FILIPPO CIABATTI: There is something profoundly universal about the music that we perform. It's still extremely appealing to today's audiences, and so powerful as a language that it still speaks to everyone in the audience as if it was written yesterday. My name is Filippo Ciabatti, and I co-founded and I am the artistic director of Upper Valley Baroque.
HELEN LYONS: If you are a music lover in New England and are not yet familiar with the name Filippo Ciabbati, you soon will be. Over the last decade, he has been everywhere: from the Boston Baroque to Dartmouth College, the VSO, and Opera Company of Middlebury just to name a few. But it鈥檚 his work with the Upper Valley Baroque that we鈥檙e here to learn about today. Has early music always been of interest to you?
FILIPPO CIABATTI: Even since when I was in Florence in my youth, I was very attracted to early music. And so when Jo and Alan came to me and we really would like to found the, a really high-level ensemble that could serve this community, a professional ensemble dedicated to the performance of Baroque music, I was thrilled to be a part of that project and very energized. We have an incredible ensemble, with musicians coming from literally all over the country and a very dedicated audience, a very dedicated fan base and so I鈥檓 excited that we're able to present this music at the level we're able to present it to this whole community.
HELEN LYONS: For their Spring Concerts on April 5 & 6 the Upper Valley Baroque will perform Handel鈥檚 setting of poetry by John Milton, L鈥橝llegro (the Happy Man), Il Penseroso (the thoughtful man) ed il Moderato (the moderate man). Can you tell us how you came to choose this work, and a little about its history?
FILIPPO CIABATTI: I really wanted to do a big handled masterpiece. And so, I just decided, well, why this season don't we do something that is equally as beautiful as some of these most sort of traditionally known masterpieces, but it's not as known. This is an incredible masterpiece. It's sort of in between an opera and an oratorio. Handel wrote this piece in 1740. It was actually not a good moment for Handel, because his, his opera company sort of failed. Italian opera had gone basically out of fashion. And so he was transitioning from writing Italian operas to writing English oratorio. This piece, despite its Italian name, is actually in English. And so he chose this, this text, they're very reflective, the, the text by Milton that basically it's poetic text by this Allegro, someone cheerful, Penseroso, someone thoughtful and moderate. And has this sort of characters dialoguing about philosophical issues. It's not a real story. It's sort of a reflection, right? And, and a conversation between these two different characters and it talks about mirth and melancholy and joy, and I think there is a universal breadth to this piece.
HELEN LYONS: What sets this piece apart from his operas and oratorios?
FILIPPO CIABATTI: Handel needed to find how his own language could speak in this new form .And the music is extraordinary In this piece, and it's extremely colorful, extremely inventive. The use of the choir, the reference to nature, the use that he has of all these instruments where he uses very creatively, the flute, the organ, the horn, the trumpet, and the singing and the colors that he creates in this piece are absolutely fantastic. So, I think this sort of this renovated freedom that he finds in this piece might have really inspired him to open a new chapter in his life. He had to reinvent himself so many times during his life and he did it with such freshness.
HELEN LYONS: to sing with them this season, Upper Valley Baroque has invited the wonderful soprano Amanda Forsythe, whom Filippo met while working with the Boston Baroque.
FILIPPO CIABATTI: And she's a superstar.
AMANDA FORSYTHE: I've worked with Filippo in Boston. Yeah, that's how we've got this connection, is through both of us working with Boston Baroque鈥� I'm Amanda Forsythe and I will be singing Handel's L鈥橝llegro, Il Penseroso, ed il Moderato with Upper Valley Baroque.
HELEN LYONS: You鈥檝e become known as an early music specialist - was that something you set out to do from the start of your career?
AMANDA FORSYTHE: I think it was more virtue of my voice type and also that I went to school in Boston, which is such a big city for early music. We've got three, more than three actually, full-time period instrument orchestras here in Boston.
HELEN LYONS: What do you enjoy most about singing early music?
AMANDA FORSYTHE: The music is so diverse. It's very collaborative. The interactions between the singers and the orchestra are much more personal and intense. I still do sing sort of the standard classical repertoire. I mostly specialize now in, in early music. Handel is by far the composer that I sing the most often.
HELEN LYONS: What do you love about this Handel work, what will listeners appreciate?
AMANDA FORSYTHE: I think this piece is extremely unique both in the composition and in the instrumentation. I think they will really enjoy the variety of instruments that are used. I mean, Handel really pulls out totally different effects to create these different characters of happiness and sadness. It's like a variety show.
HELEN LYONS: You鈥檝e sung this piece multiple times, what is different about this time for you?
AMANDA FORSYTHE: This time I'm going to be singing probably five or six arias that I've never looked at before, even though I've sung the piece three or four times. I'm singing mostly the arias of Penseroso. Just because it's a massive, massive work. So most of the arias could be sung by a soprano or by a tenor. There's no real plot to it, It talks about the power of music and the different moods that it can bring out in people.
HELEN LYONS: Have you sung in Vermont before, is this your Green Mountain debut?
AMANDA FORSYTHE: I have not sung in Vermont before. I've been to Vermont many times to take my kids skiing, but I'm looking forward to seeing the cultural side.
HELEN LYONS: Filippo Ciabatti leads the Upper Valley Baroque orchestra, chorus and soloists April 5 at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph and April 6 at the Lebanon Opera house. For more information and tickets head to
FILIPPO CIABATTI: Please come and join us. We'd love to see you there, and I think you'll have a great time.
