Louisville's period instrument ensemble Bourbon Baroque will be presenting Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Kentucky Center's Bomhard Theater on Saturday, March 14 at 8:00pm.
Co-artistic directors of Bourbon Baroque, Austin Clark and Nicolas Fortin sat down with Daniel Gilliam to discuss their upcoming production.
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How this production of Dido and Aeneas is different from the rest
"This production of Dido and Aeneas is the quintessential example of what our mission is for Bourbon Baroque. We have gathered together a group of a variety of disciplines to create a visual concept for this production that includes contemporary dance, pantomime actors on mask, as well as of course the orchestra, the chorus, and minimalist costume and scenic design."
How Bourbon Baroque puts on an opera without being an opera company
"I am a big fan of surrounding yourself with smarter people. I think it makes it so that you don't feel like you have everything on your shoulders. Obviously with the opera form that is a whole contingency of collaboration.... Through my own personal musical work and musical theater direction, I have met many people in the theater community and through those projects and introductions I have formulated this wonderful Baroque dream team, a local group that is going to help us make this happen."
On Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
"It is based on the Aeneid by Virgil and retells the story of the sad and unfortunate fate of Dido getting betrayed by her lover Aeneas... It's beautiful music, very intricate fast paced one hour opera with dance music. The characters are making the story in front our eyes, but always with short and compelling interjections of 24 piece chorus in our production."
On working with the Youth Performing Arts School
"This program is great for us because the YPAS students are able to dedicate the time needed to make the music really speak. When I'm coaching young musicians, particularly singers, I'm like, well it's one thing to learn the notes but it's quite another to then add on that extra layer, all the gestures and the Baroque styling, which I am often equating to musical theater. Musical theater has their own little bitty ways of doing things and if you can understand that then you can understand that the Baroque music has it's own toolbox of vocal techniques that makes things really sell."
On the short orchestral suite to begin the evening
"There is a short 20 minuet orchestral suite that we've actually performed a handful of times before. It'a a piece that we really hold true to what we do with Bourbon Baroque and that's of course the central component of collaboration. We are performing Georg Philipp Telemann's La Putain."
You can purchase your tickets to see Bourbon Baroque's Dido and Aeneas here.