The Glover Concert 2005
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The 2005 John Glover concert took place on March 12, 2005 in the Falls Park Pavilion, Evandale amidst the finalist paintings of this year's John Glover Art Prize. Following a successful program of vocal music in 2004, this year's concert featured the magnificent voices of Diana Briffa and Maria Lurighi, with Elizabeth Rowlings, Alison Saunders and Dean Cocker supported by the Evandale Village Singers and Angela Brinkhoff. Two well-known choral works were performed: Vivaldi's Gloria and a concert version of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. It was a magical evening with the weather playing its part appropriately. During Act III of Dido and Aeneas, where the witches conjure a storm, the heavens complied with several rolls of thunder at the appropriate time. The Performers: Diana Briffa is our local star. She was born in Launceston, Tasmania. She studied music at Broadland House, Launceston, and then attended St Hilda's School in WA and the Victorian College of the Arts, completing her Bachelor of Music Arts degree under Dame Joan Hammond. For several years Diana was a member of the Victoria State Opera, and was subsequently invited by Richard Bonynge to join Opera Australia. As a coloratura soprano, Diana has appeared in numerous Mozart operas, including Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Cosi Fan Tutti. She has performed as a soloist many times with the Evandale Village Singers and we are delighted that she was able to join us again singing Gloria. She has a very busy schedule including 2005 Ten days on the Island and performing at the World Expo in Japan. Maria Lurighi One of Australia's most versatile great voices, Maria is renowned for her contemporary work as well as her classical and operatic performances. She has sung most of the great roles for mezzo-soprano in most of the mainland states and has performed extensively with the Paul Grybowski Quartet. Presently she is the principal contemporary voice teacher at the Tasmanian Conservatorium in Hobart. She joins us to sing some solo parts of the Gloria and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas. Elizabeth Rowlings is a young local soprano. She has performed in many concerts around Launceston as a soloist and has performed the role of Dido previously with the Launceston Philharmonic Society. In 2003 she sang Dido's Lament with the Evandale Village Singers in the Ten Days on the Island event, Choral Island, at Port Arthur. Alison Saunders was born in Tasmania and currently lives in Brisbane where she studies voice with Judith Henley. She has sung in concerts with the Launceston Philharmonic Society and in the 2004 Launceston Competitions won the Merv Barnes Memorial trophy, the Launceston aria and the sacred solo. She will sing a duet in Vivaldi's Gloria and the role of Belinda in Dido and Aeneas Dean Cocker recently returned to Launceston after living in Sydney and Melbourne. He has played principal roles in numerous musicals, most recently as the constable in the Launceston Players production of Fiddler on the Roof. Concert work includes Carmina Burana, Messiah and Carols by Candlelight. He will sing the role of Aeneas. Evandale Village Singers is a community-based choir that formed in October 1999. Conducted by Jane Ellis, group has grown from its initial beginning of 15 singers to a current size of about 25 voices. Members come from a variety of backgrounds and experience in the Northern Midlands and Launceston area. The group's first performance was in December 1999 at Christmas services in Evandale. Since then, Evandale Village Singers have performed at a large number of community and cultural events. Highlights have been presenting our own concerts of Vivaldi's Gloria in 2000 and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 2002: performing at the Ross Festivals of the Arts in 2000 and 2001: and performing at the Ten Days on the Island Choral Island event in 2003. In 2004 we held a musical weekend, Musical Evandale, in conjunction with the John Glover Festival of Arts. The 2004 John Glover Concert was the feature event of this and the weekend included workshops, choral concerts and our Sunday afternoon performance of Handel's Dixit Dominus. The Music The Gloria in D is perhaps Vivaldi's best-known choral work, consisting of twelve self-contained movements. Its year of composition is not certain, but it may be the Gloria written in 1725 for the marriage of Louis XIV of France. Vivaldi was the musical director at a girl's orphanage in Venice and the Gloria, with its scoring for two female soloists, may have been written for to suit performance by the girls of the orphanage. Dido and Aeneas is one of the earliest English operas. It adapts well to a concert performance. Purcell wrote Dido and Aeneas,for performance at a girls' school run by a London ballet master named Josias Priest in about 1689. The libretto is by Nahum Tate. The opera was revived in 1895. Dido and Aeneas takes its story from Classical literature that would have been well known to the audience of Restoration England and adapts it to the political climate of the time. For students of history however, it should be noted that Dido and Aeneas could never have met in real life, being separated by several hundred years! A copy of Nahum Tate's libretto from 1689 survives whereas the earliest surviving score dates from 1777. The story begins at some time after the fall of Troy. A storm has driven Aeneas and his wandering Trojans to the shores of North Africa, where Dido, Queen of Carthage, has given them shelter. Dido and Aeneas fall in love. The fates have told Aeneas that he will not stay in Carthage, but her resolves to defy them. He has not reckoned, however, with the Sorceress, who with her witches in a cane has been hatching a plot to destroy Dido - her fame, her love, even her life. During a hunt, (act III) the Sorceress conjures up an image of Mercury, the messenger god, and has him instruct Aeneas, to end his dallying in Carthage and to sail off and rebuild Troy. Aeneas, heart-broken complies. After a wild dance with the witches (Act III), he and his sailors start for Troy. Dido, crushed by a feeling of rejection, lies down to die. To her lady-in-waiting she sings her lament, a ground-bass air that is one of the most moving achievements in the entire world of operas. As she lies dying, a chorus of mourning Carthaginians gathers round her, singing With drooping wings ye Cupids come, And scatter roses on her tomb. The John Glover Society Inc. PO Box 129 EVANDALE TAS 7212 |