The Gregorian Singers, St. Olaf College Early Music Ensembles, Twin Cities Lute Co-Op, Dance Revels Moving History, and the University of Minnesota Opera Department present a fully staged performance of the first surviving opera, Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo.
Friday, February 28 at 7:30 pm., Boe Memorial Chapel, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Sunday, March 2 at 4:00 pm., St. Paul’s on the Hill Episcopal Church, 1524 Summit Ave, St Paul, MN 55105
Ticket, St. Paul performance: $25 general - single student (with ID)$10, or double student 2 for $15 available in advance and at the door.
Information: Please visit www.thegregoriansingers.org or contact tgs [at] thegregoriansingers [dot] org
You’re invited to join us for a fully staged presentation of Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo. Come and experience this lovely Baroque opera production complete with costumes, sets, historical dance, and fabulous period instrumentation.
The performance features soprano Maria Jette in the title role of Anima, Nick Chalmers in the role of Corpo, and countertenor Patrick Terry as Intelletto. The chorus includes the Gregorian Singers and the St. Olaf College Early Music Ensembles. The production also features dancers from the company Dance Revels Moving History under the direction of Jane Peck and a seventeen-piece, late-Renaissance style period orchestra.
Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo (“The Representation of the Soul and the Body”) is probably the first surviving opera. Composed in 1600 by Baroque music pioneer Emilio di’ Cavelieri (libretto by Agostino Manni), the work is a prototypical form that soon led to the development of opera and the sacred oratorio, forms with which we have become familiar. The story of Rappresentatione is a dramatically realized, ethical “argument” between characters representing the human Spirit, Body, and Intellect. With the assistance of various angelic and demonic characters, a Counselor, Earthly Life, and a Guardian Angel, the characters Anima, Corpo, and Intelletto are torn among various ideas concerning the best way to live their life on Earth – spending one’s time enjoying the pleasures of earthly pursuits, or aspiring to live a more spiritual life. (Sound familiar?) Join us on the journey and find out who wins the argument.
Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo is a product of a musical consortium spearheaded by Monte Mason, director of the Gregorian Singers, lutenist Phillip Rukavina, co-director of the Twin Cities Lute Co-Op, and coloratura soprano Laura Hynes. The production group also includes St. Olaf College’s Early Music Ensembles, the Opera Department of the University of Minnesota, and Dance Revels Moving History.
The Twin Cities performance is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.