A salon concert followed by a social and light supper, featuring 'Les Bougies Baroques’ (conducted from the harpsichord by Ian Peter Bugeja and led from the violin by Sam Kennedy) and mezzo-soprano Maria Ostroukhova.
About this event
Burgh House & 'Les Bougies Baroques' are proud to present 'A Queer Georgian Social Season' Salon Concert & Social, shedding light on:
Farinelli: Operatic Castrato Sensation
Join us at Burgh House for the continuation of our first annual Queer Georgian Social Season as we take you back to a time when queers were more visible and accepted than you thought.
For their contemporaries, castrati were idols as well as monsters, music-machines, and seducers of both men & women – which implies that they were the epitome of ‘queerness' in an 18th-century sense: that is, ‘oddities’ that defied binary thinking. For us in this day & age, it is difficult to comprehend the power of seduction that their voices seem to have held – or, for that matter, the mass hysteria that some of them inspired.
No castrato generated a trans-European fan-base as formidable and loyal as Farinelli – an Apulian boy by the name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (1705-1782), whose father’s death and the consequent loss of economic security for the whole family provoked the decision to have him castrated prior to puberty – arguably one of the greatest singers in the history of opera.
This enlightening evening at Burgh House will paint a vocal & biographical profile of the legendary castrato's dazzling career spanning almost four decades (during which his virtuosity & refined style of singing charmed & astonished not only the connoisseurs and enthusiasts of the age, but also the likes of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Frederick Prince of Wales, King Louis XV, and King Philip V of Spain), life, and times through the rarely-performed vocal & instrumental music of composers Porpora, Hasse, Leo, and [Farinelli's brother Riccardo] Broschi — performed by 'Les Bougies Baroques' & featuring queer headliners Ian Peter Bugeja (conductor-harpsichordist), Sam Kennedy (leader), and Maria Ostroukhova (mezzo-soprano) — and will be followed by a social and light supper.
The Queer Georgian Social Season is conceived & curated by Ian Peter Bugeja & Mark Francis-Vasey.
'Les Bougies Baroques'
Conductor-harpsichordist | Ian Peter Bugeja
Leader | Sam Kennedy
Mezzo-Soprano | Maria Ostroukhova
Doors and bar open: 7pm
Performance start time: 7:30pm
Tickets (includes light supper): £25, £20 concessions (for under 25s)
MUSICAL PROGRAMME:
L. LEO (1694-1744): Sinfonia in A major
N. PORPORA (1686-1768): 'In braccio a mille furie' from 'Semiramide Riconosciuta'
N. PORPORA: 'Se pietoso il tuo labbro' from 'Semiramide Riconosciuta’
J. A. HASSE (1699-1783): Sinfonia in G minor [Op. 5, No. 6]
N. PORPORA: 'Alto Giove' from ‘Polifemo'
R. BROSCHI (c.1698-1756): 'Son qual nave' from ‘Artaserse’
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