POSTPONED: Third Coast Baroque To Spotlight Vivaldi Opera Arias In Season-Finale Program

Third Coast Baroque, Chicago's newest early music ensemble, will showcase selected arias from Antonio Vivaldi's 1727 Orlando furioso, RV 728, his rarely performed, three-act dramatic opera about romance, jealousy, and magic, in its April season-finale concerts, "Welcome Back, Vivaldi: Revisiting Forgotten Treasures."

The program features company mezzo-soprano and co-founder Angela Young Smucker, applauded for her "impassioned, virtuosic" singing (Chicago Classical Review), performing five arias from the Vivaldi opera, which received its U.S. premiere just 40 years ago.

She'll be accompanied by the TCB Chamber Ensemble, led by concertmaster and violinist Martin Davids.

The period-instrument ensemble will play five of Vivaldi's intimate works for strings, including string concertos, solo sonatas, and a trio sonata, between the vocal performances.

"Welcome Back, Vivaldi" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 17, 2020, at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, Illinois; and 5:00 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington Street, Chicago.

"Because they're so seldom heard, the Orlando furioso arias will be thrilling discoveries for many concertgoers," Smucker says. "And the instrumental chamber works offer a highly pleasurable change of pace from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons."

Smucker and Davids designed the "Welcome Back, Vivaldi" program and its staging in close collaboration with Third Coast Baroque's Vienna-based artistic director, Rubèn Dubrovsky.

The program's title alludes to the ensemble's critically acclaimed "Vivica and Vivaldi" presentation with internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, applauded as one of "The 10 best classical concerts of 2018" (Chicago Tribune).

Four Roles, Five Arias

Smucker will sing arias of four different characters, including the opera's hero, the obsessively jealous knight Orlando, who is infatuated with Angelica, lover and future wife of the prince Medoro. Smucker notes that the role of Orlando was originally sung by a female, the contralto Lucia Lancetti, at the opera's 1727 world premiere in Venice.

The mezzo-soprano will sing Orlando's "Nel Profondo" and "Sorge l'irato nembo," the seductive sorceress Alcina's "Cosi potessi anch'io," the female warrior Bradamente's "Taci, non ti langar," and Angelica's "Poveri affetti miei, siete innocenti."

Smucker says the arias have never been professionally presented in Chicago, except for "Sorge l'irato nembo," last heard locally in 2014 in a Baroque Band performance.

It's a rare opportunity to hear these opera excerpts sung in intimate settings for string quartet and continuo (harpsichord and theorbo) instead of a full orchestra, she says.

Vivaldi, a virtuoso violinist, "treats the voice like a violin in the way he writes ornamental figures and in his highly florid vocal writing," she observes.

The arias will be presented with English supertitles projected above the stage.

Instrumental works will include Vivaldi's Concerto for Strings in C Major, RV 110; Trio Sonata Op. 1, No. 1, in G Minor, RV 73; the lyrical, contemplative Sonata No. 3 in A Minor, RV 43, featuring Baroque cellist Anna Steinhoff; Concerto for Strings in G Minor, RV 157; and Sonata No. 2 in A Major, RV 31. The latter features violinist Davids, who plays "with flair and abandon without transgressing period practice" (Chicago Classical Review).

The TCB Chamber Ensemble also will include Pauline Kempf, violin; Elizabeth Hagen, viola; Mark Shuldiner, harpsichord; and Brandon J. Acker, theorbo.

Tickets can be purchased in advance ($10-50) online at thirdcoastbaroque.org or by calling 312-725-9296. Tickets may also be purchased at the door ($10-60). Special pricing is available for seniors (65+), students (with valid ID), and patrons under 35.

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