by Rod Parke - SGN A&E Writer

A Day On the Town,
a Night In Hell
Moore Theatre
April 15-17

Last Friday I attended a most entertaining rehearsal of a comic madrigal. Superb singers and musicians sang bawdy texts, while actors and clowns presented 'stage pictures' of the comedy. You too can see this, and more.

The Early Music Guild will present A Day On the Town, a Night In Hell: an original synthesis of Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso and Claudio Monteverdi's Il ballo delle ingrate, based on a concept by Roger Downey. This production will bring together celebrated talents from various corners of Seattle's musical and theatrical arts scene, including Stephen Stubbs (artistic director of Pacific Musicworks and co-director of the Boston Early Music Festival), Arne Zaslove (theater director), Donald Byrd (Spectrum Dance Theater), Theodore Deacon (Stage Director of EMG's 2007 production of Poppea), and an impressive roster of singers, dancers, actors, and period instrumentalists.

I was particularly impressed with the effortless blend of the voices of the madrigal singers, each an excellent soloist in his/her own right. I would attend for the music alone, but the stage pictures will certainly add impact and fun.

Monteverdi's Il ballo delle ingrate, composed in 1608 - a year after his well-known L'Orfeo - is a wickedly skewed fable of the fate that awaits ladies who scorn their lovers. In rollicking contrast, Vecchi's L'Amfiparnaso (1594) is a bawdy tale of desire and deception told entirely through lascivious madrigal vignettes, all mimed by a troupe of commedia dell'artezannis.

For more information and tickets, call 1-877-784-4849 or visit earlymusicguild.org. I'll see you there!

Reviewer Rod Parke can be reached at rmp62@columbia.edu.

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