ADAGIO – MUSIC FOR EASTER
The annual Adagio Cycle combines religious and lay works, in search of the Divine and the Human Passion.
Markellos Chrysikopoulos and the Baroque music ensemble Latinitas Nostra, in collaboration with stage director Yannis Skourletis, will present the three existing Leçons de Ténèbres by Michel-Richard de Lalande.
Among the most idiomatic genres of Baroque vocal music, the Leçons de Ténèbres formed part of the Holy Week services in France. Based upon the Lamentations of Jeremiah, they evolved, from their polyphonic form in the late Renaissance, into purely soloist works. Balancing between religious piety and sheer worldly sensuousness, Michel-Richard de Lalande left three Leçons that his two young daughters would sing for the personal pleasure of Louis XIV, displaying an art that became the talk of the town. The people of Paris, deprived of entertainment since the beginning of Lent, crowded the churches in order to attend the ‘theatrical’ vigil. The themes of the Leçons were death, loss, decadence, and the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, as a metaphor for the Fall of Man and the Crucifixion.
Fanie Antonelou soprano
Theodora Baka mezzo-soprano
Theodoros Kitsos theorbo
Andreas Linos viola da gamba
Jason Ioannou baroque cello
Dimitris Tigkas violone
Markellos Chrysikopoulos church organ, harpsichord
Artistic supervisor Markellos Chrysikopoulos
Director Yannis Skourletis