Busy, Busy, Busy!

We are in a spell in which we seem to be going out to some special event every day. Thursday morning we drove to the Country Diner in the Enfield mall near Bradley Field (CT) where we met my son-in-law, Rob Shay, who had flown in from Colorado to attend a conference dedicated to 17th Century music at Yale U. He had time to see us for a couple of hours before going on to Yale, so we met at the Diner for brunch. It was the perfect place - no one rushed us and I had two large blueberry pancakes, two eggs fried "over easy," and two strips of bacon, all delicious. We hadn't seen Rob for some time, years in fact. So there was a lot to catch up on. I was particularly interested in the work he is doing for Bärenreiter Publishers editing MSS of operas by Henry Purcell - Rob's academic speciality. He is currently working on King Arthur, a challenging project because the MSS are in more disarray than, e.g., Dido and Aeneas, his first project, now published. There are a lot of variants in the existing MSS, none of which were made by Purcell himself. So Rob has to decide what note to publish, and include a footnote. He is gratified that several well-known Europaean orchestras have recently performed Dido and Aeneas using his new score. It is demanding work, but he enjoys it. Here is a little quote aboutDido and Aeneas: "Probably no opera has received as much scrutiny note for note as Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Small in size, it nevertheless makes a great emotional impact and carries prodigious historical weight. However, a clear and complete picture of its origin, date, and musical score is bedevilled by a dearth of contemporary musical sources and archival details. In dealing with this state of affairs, Robert Shay’s new edition of Dido and Aeneas for Bärenreiter offers a model of clarity. Shay begins his Preface with the most succinct and lucid history to date of the ‘Origins of Dido and Aeneas’ (pp. iv–viii with full references). He weaves together the history of opera at the court of Charles II and modern theories on the date of Dido with the four earliest documents pertaining to the opera in the order of their discovery: the undated Chelsea libretto for Josiah Priest’s boarding school for girls, the epilogue by Thomas D’Urfey published in 1690 that was spoken at a performance at Priest’s boarding school, the libretto of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis for performance at the same school indicating its previous performance ‘before the KING’ (in 1684), and a letter written from Aleppo in 1688 asking whether ‘Harry’ had prepared a keyboard version of the overtures to ‘the mask he made for Preists [sic] Ball’, describing the overture that survives at the head of Act I in detail. Admitting that the ‘picture of Dido’s early existence thus remains shadowy’, Shay significantly concludes that while ‘circumstantial evidence’ points to a court origin, the possibility remains that the premiere of the opera ‘occurred in 1687 or 1688 at the Priests’ school’."

At the Country Diner with Rob. ************************************** Friday, we went to a concert given by Andy Davis at the Marlboro Community Center, which is the ground floor of the Congregational Church in Marlboro - a new venue for a concert because for decades, that space has been a play school. The concert was all songs composed by Andy himself. Some we had heard before, some were new. It was a delightful concert - Andy is a prolific composer and he is good! I got to see several people I haven't seen in some time. We had to navigate some steps coming in - not wheelchair accessible - but when we left, some men got out a portable ramp, and we used that.

Andy at his concert Friday. Saturday, we went to a concert Brendon was singing in - given by the Greenfield Commmunity College Chorus. That venue was new to me - St. James and St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Greenfield. It was very nice and we got there early and were right up front. The concert was of "classics" in music spanning several centuries: Di Lasso, Bach, Brahms, Barber, etc. Brendon had a solo in a spritual, Every Time I Feel the Spirit and he did well. The pieces were well-chosen and it was very enjoyable. The church was very accessible, which we appreciated.

Top: The GCC Chorus at St. James Church. Bottom: Brendon with some chorus mates.