What is the most romantic way to spend Valentine's Day? The Henry Purcell Society of Boston has dug deep into musical and culinary history, taken the pulse of the times, and come up with a soufflé of musical, culinary, and oenophilic perfection.
Board member Robert Lublin, professional wine reviewer, will take our guests on an entertaining tasting journey of five wines paired with chocolates. Grammy award-winning soprano, Amanda Forsythe, and rising countertenor Cody Bowers will give intimate performances of virtuosic duets and songs from the baroque repertoire. If you aren’t familiar with HIP (Historically Informed Performance) then you are in for a special treat! Our musicians play historically accurate instruments in the style of the period.
We are also offering fresh mocktails for non-drinking friends, if you just want to enjoy the intoxicating music! Featured businesses include Belmont's beloved The Spirited Gourmet , and two female-owned businesses - Sage Platters and Simple Sips!
This will truly be a feast of excellence, with instrumentalists Cristiano Contadin on viola da gamba, Susanna Ogata and Adriane Post on violins, and Michael Sponseller, harpsichord. Bios are all below…
Seating is very limited, so don't wait!!
AMANDA FORSYTHE, SOPRANO
American soprano Amanda Forsythe is internationally acclaimed for both her operatic and concert work. She made her USA stage début with the Boston Early Music Festival, where her many leading roles have included Poppea and Drusilla L’incoronazione di Poppea, Niobe and Manto (recording) in Steffani's Niobe, regina di Tebe, Venus Venus and Adonis (John Blow), Pallas The Judgment of Paris (Eccles), Isabelle Le Carnaval de Venise (Campra), Serpina La serva padrona and Edilia Almira, Königin von Castilien, for which she received rave reviews. She sang Euridice on the recording of Charpentier’s La descente d'Orphée aux enfers with the Boston Early Music Festival which won the 2015 GRAMMY AWARD for Best Opera Recording. Her highly acclaimed CDs have included her début solo album of Handel arias "The Power of Love" with Apollo’s Fire on the Avie label. She recently toured with French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, performing works based on the Orfeo myth, and subsequently recorded the role of Euridice in a new edition of Gluck’s Orfeo for the ERATO label.
Major European opera house engagements have included Dalinda Ariodante in Geneva and Munich and Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro,Manto in Steffani’s Niobe, regina di Tebe, Amour in Gluck’s Orphée and Nannetta Falstaff at London’s Royal Opera House. Her performance as Nannetta was described by Gramophone Magazine as “meltingly beautiful”.
Amanda Forsythe is a frequent collaborator with Cristiano Contadin and Opera Prima. Their recent CD “Torna Vincitor”, an album of music by Johann Gottlieb Graun, received a “Critic’s Choice” award from Opera News. For more detailed information, please visit her website at:
amandaforsythe.com
CODY BOWERS, COUNTERTENOR
With “a voice of rare beauty” (Seen and Heard International, 2022), American countertenor Cody Bowers has received national award recognition from The Sullivan Foundation, The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and The George London Foundation for Singers. In the 23-24 performance season, Mr. Bowers will make debuts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt, The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a World Premier of Jonathan Leshnoff’s The Sacrifice of Isaac, The Houston Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, and The Metropolitan Opera in John Adams’ El Niño. In previous seasons, Mr. Bowers has performed with Merola Opera Program at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, the Stern auditorium at Carnegie Hall, San Diego Opera, Minnesota Opera, Utah Opera, The Atlanta Opera, Boston Early Music Festival, Opera Neo, Tanglewood Music Center, and Cantos Para Hermanar al Mundo in Torreón, Mexico.
On the Operatic stage, Mr. Bowers continues to expand a broad and contrasting list of characters that range from Rugierro in Handel’s Alcina, Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, the Refugee from Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Federico Garcia Lorca in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, Leonardo in Gabriela Lena Frank’s new Opera El último sueño de Frida y Diego, L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges; and Orlando in Handel’s Orlando.
In addition to his work as a soloist, Mr. Bowers is an active member of internationally celebrated ensembles like Gramophone Award-winning Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, The Handel & Haydn Society, Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra, The Thirteen, Bach Society Houston, VAE: Cincinnati, and Ensemble Altera.
CRISTIANO CONTADIN, VIOLA DA GAMBA
Cristiano Contadin is an Italian viola da gamba player and the founder of the Opera Prima Ensemble, a chamber music group of internationally-acclaimed soloists devoted to the baroque repertoire. As a gamba soloist and continuo player, Cristiano Contadin collaborates with ensembles in Italy and abroad, including I Barocchisti, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Accademia Bizantina, Odechaton, La Venexiana, Orchestra Sinfonica “G. Verdi” (Milan), Cantar Lontano, Boston Early Music Festival, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala (Milan), and Il Suonar Parlante. Mr. Contadin has recorded for Sony, EMI Classical, Universal (Deutsche Grammophon), Arte, Brilliant, Hyperion, Stradivarius, Winter & Winter, CPO and Naxos, among others. In 2015, he released a recording of the complete Telemann Trio Sonatas and Concertos with his Opera Prima Ensemble to widespread acclaim. For this disc, proclaimed by Classic Voice as “CD of the Month”, Musica Magazine confirmed him as “a first-rate artist for the sweetness of the sound, the stylistic relevance and the absolute mastery of the instrument”. His 2016 recording of Corrette’s “Les délices de la solitude” (Opera Prima) was praised by Fanfare Magazine as “spirited, elegant, and warm”. With the early music group Il Suonar Parlante, his recording “Full of Color” won such prestigious awards as the Diapason d’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. With the Quartetto Italiano di Viole da Gamba, Il Suonar Parlante, and as a soloist, he aims to cultivate a repertoire that embraces ancient as well as modern viol consort music. He has performed works by contemporary composers and jazz artists such as Kenny Wheeler, Uri Caine, Don Byron, Ernst Reijseger, Vanni Moretto, Markus Stockhausen, Francesco Hoch, Henry Bartholomée, and Lucio Garau, and performed in the Italian premiere of George Benjamin’s “Written on Skin” with the Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano. In February 2016, Mr Contadin was invited to play for the funeral ceremony of Umberto Eco in Milan.
In addition to his activities as a performer, Mr. Contadin wrote the Italian translation of “The Early History of the Viol” by Ian Woodfield, published by EDT – Turin.
cristianocontadin.com
MICHAEL SPONSELLER, HARPSICHORD
Michael Sponseller is recognized as one of the outstanding American harpsichordists of his generation. A highly diversified career brings him to festivals and concert venues all around as a recitalist, concerto soloist, and active continuo performer on both harpsichord and organ. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Lisa Goode Crawford with additional studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music, The Hague. He has garnered prizes at the International Harpsichord Competitions of Montréal (1999), the International Harpsichord Competition at Bruges (1998, 2001) as well as First Prizes at both the American Bach Soloists and Jurow International Harpsichord Competitions. He appears regularly as harpsichordist and continuo organist with several of American’s finest Baroque orchestras and ensembles, such as Bach Collegium San Diego, Les Délices, Aston Magna, Tragicomedia, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and can be heard on over 20 recordings from Delos, Centaur, Eclectra, and Naxos. At home, he is a regular presence at Boston’s Emmanuel Music, having performed over 125 sacred cantatas of J.S. Bach. His various recordings feature a diverse list of composers—including Bach, Handel, Rameau, Praetorius, and Laurenti—and received excellent reviews throughout the world. Early Music America Magazine has said of his performance of the J.S. Bach concertos: “His well-proportioned elegance carries the day quite stylishly.” Mr. Sponseller has been on the faculty at Longy School of Music and Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and is associate music director of Bach Collegium San Diego.
SUSANNA OGATA, VIOLIN
Susanna Ogata enjoys an active performance schedule in greater New England and beyond. She has been a soloist and participant in concerts presented by Arcadia Players, The Bach Ensemble led by Joshua Rifkin, Sarasa, Connecticut Early Music Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival, and is a founding member of the Boston Classical Trio. She has been the Assistant Concertmaster for the Handel and Haydn Society since 2014. Her playing has been praised for its “airborne lyricism” (Fanfare Magazine) and for being “witty, responsive, making the tops of phrases gleam” (Gramophone Magazine).
With fortepianist Ian Watson, Susanna completed “The Beethoven Project”, a venture to record Beethoven’s Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin on period instruments for the CORO label. The recordings have received accolades, including praise in The New York Times for “elegant readings that are attentive to quicksilver changes in dynamics and articulation” as well as an eminent release distinction in the Boston Globe in 2017. Their performances included appearances on The Cambridge Society for Early Music series, Tage Alte Musik Festival in Regensburg, Germany, as well as a two-year residency at MIT. To see Ms. Ogata’s full calendar, please visit: susannaogata.com
ADRIANE POST, VIOLIN
"Exquisite" - The New York Times
"One of North America's Brightest and Best" -Early Music Americ
Sought after as soloist, leader, collaborator and teacher across the US, Adriane Post formed her first string quartet at age eleven and was hooked.
A founding member of Diderot String Quartet and ACRONYM Ensemble, Adriane is leader of Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and The Thirteen and dedicates her time to performing and teaching Baroque, Classical and Early Romantic repertoire on historical instruments. She has served as Concertmaster of the Washington National Cathedral Orchestra, tenured member of Handel + Haydn Society, member of Apollo's Fire, frequent guest artist and soloist with Four Nations Ensemble and regular with Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra. She has appeared with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants in Thiré, France, as guest concertmaster with groups such as Seraphic Fire in Miami, New York Baroque Inc. and with many ensembles across the US. Recent tour and festival appearances include The Proms, Carnegie Hall, Caramoor, Tanglewood, Ravinia and Carmel Bach Festival. Teaching has brought her to Oberlin's Baroque Performance Institute, The Smithsonian, De Paul University and Cincinnati Conservatory. Post completed a Bachelor of Music at Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters with the inaugural class of The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance program. Post was born and raised in Vermont. adrianepost.com
FALL VIRTUAL EVENT
SUNDAY, OCT 10, 2021 3:00PM ONLINE
The Hunt-Berry Duo in Recital:
Works C.F. Abel, J.C. Bach, and Beethoven
Shirley Hunt, historical violoncello
Sylvia Berry, fortepiano
WINTER VIRTUAL EVENT
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2022 at 8pm ON ZOOM
We are thrilled that historian Diana Solomon accepted our invitation to discuss the role of women on the Restoration Era stage, with special attention to the “Mad Song,” soprano Anne Bracegirdle and composer John Eccles. With the help of her composer friends (Eccles, Purcell and others), Anne Bracegirdle was able to restore her image as a “virtuous actress” amid a vicious public scandal that nearly destroyed her career. Diana Solomon has written numerous articles from the feminist perspective on the roles women had to play in Restoration Comedies, and also how “mad songs” played a role in creating public sympathy for Anne Bracegirdle. Want to know what it was like to be a female actor on the 17th century stage? Join us for the discussion!
Pre-recorded mad songs performed by Amanda Forsythe and Sarah Yanovitch- Vitale will be premiered at this free event. The panelists include actor and theater historian Natalya Baldyga, stage director Kirsten Z. Cairns and HPSOB Artistic Director, Jessica Cooper.
