Ardee hosts weekend of Baroque music classics
TOURING musicians and singers are not new.
There were the bards and wandering minstrels of mediaeval times, while in Ancient Greece, Homer and Sappho were the singer-songwriters of their day.
For many singers in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was the same hence the era of the Arie di Baule, or ‘suitcase arias’ when famous singers brought arias with them on their travels, and inserted them into operas as party pieces.
Suitcase Arias is the title of opening concert of the Ardee Baroque Music Festival, with leading Irish mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty performing many such beautiful arias from that era by Broschi (brother of Farinelli), Vivaldi and Gluck, including the famous and heart-breaking Che Faro senza Euridice. It takes place on Friday November 22 at 7:30pm in St Mary’s Abbey, Ardee.
Sharon Carty is a winner of the RAAP/RTÉ Lyric FM Classical Breakthrough Music Bursary, and has performed leading roles at Oper Frankfurt and in the Galway International Arts Festival/Irish National Opera production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. She will be joined by acclaimed baroque musicians led by Claire Duff, and featuring Marja Gaynor (violin), Lisa Dowdall (viola), Margaret Dorris (cello), David
Adams (harpsichord).
Other performances over the weekend include Musici Ireland, who wowed audiences and received an immediate standing ovation last year. This year they offer a programme of Handel, Bach and Corelli and bring two internationally acclaimed trumpeters, Crispian Steele Perkins and Niall O’Sullivan for Vivaldi’s thrilling Concerto for Two Trumpets. Writing group Lit Lab also return for a free poetry reading in the Library on Saturday afternoon, there’s a guest talk with Dr James O’Brien Moran on Sunday, workshops in the community and the festival draws to a close with a concert that explores the connections between baroque and traditional Irish music featuring the skills of uilleann piper David Power with much-admired early music group Camerata Kilkenny with harpsichordist Malcolm Proud.
Full details on the Festival are available on www.ardeebaroque.com Tickets are on sale through An Táin Arts Centre, Crowe St, Dundalk, Co Louth +353 42 9332332 or www.antain.ie Booking charges apply.
The festival is funded by Louth County Council, Create Louth and the Arts Council.