Tall Tales by Madmen

Sat Jun 11, 19:00 - Sat Jun 11, 20:30

Erin Hall

ABOUT

*PLEASE NOTE: Inmate Victor Tichart has escaped from the asylum! Willem Luitingh will take his place behind the piano*

What happens when a mad sea-captain, a delusional knight and a legendary lover share a stage? Bass-baritone Rudolph Maré and pianist Willem Luitingh will answer this question in melodious fashion. Erin Hall is the asylum where you can hear tales of these men on the wrong side of sanity. Yes, the performers are insane, too.

The first half starts off with shanties of pirates and sunken treasure by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, and ghost stories by Mussorgsky. Wolf and Brahms provide a soothing respite after the interval, with a duo of delicate art songs. Then the infamous knight Don Quixote will sing boastful songs of love and valour to his beloved Dulcinea in Ravel’s short song cycle Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. Kabalevsky provides another quixotic serenade. Not to be outdone, Don Juan sings a song by Tchaikovsky, guaranteed to charm many a maiden out of her robes. His servant Leporello then boasts about his master’s conquests in an opera aria by Mozart. But our errant knight’s servant Sancho Panza gets the final operatic say from Massenet’s Don Quichotte.

PROGRAMME

C Armstrong Gibbs - Songs of the Mad Sea-Captain, Op. 111
-i.   Hidden Treasure
-ii.  Abel Wright
-iii. Toll the Bell
-iv. The Golden Ray

M Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death
-i.   Lullabye
-ii.  Serenade
-iii. Trepak
-iv. Field Marshall

---Interval---

H Wolf - Verborgenheit
J Brahms - Feldeinsamkeit, Op. 86 no. 2
M Ravel - Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84
D Kabalevsky - Don Quixote’s Serenade
PI Tchaikovsky - Don Juan’s Serenade, Op. 28 no. 1
WA Mozart - “Madamina”, from the opera Don Giovanni
J Massenet - “Riez! Allez!”, from the opera Don Quichotte

VIDEO AND AUDIO

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The Vagabond
The first song from Ralph Vaughan Williams' song cycle Songs of Travel.

This was filmed by Gareth Hassall at a recital on 9 April 2016 at Erin Hall. I recorded the audio myself, and due to poor microphone placement and recording levels, it sounded rather bad. Most of the sound in the video is from Gareth's camera.
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Les pas d'armes du Roi Jean
A recording on Soundcloud of Saint-Saëns' tale of King Jean's jousting tournament.

Recorded at house concert at my home.

(opens in new window/tab)
https://soundcloud.com/rudrocksopera/saint-saens-roi-jean

IMAGES

DIRECTIONS

Tall Tales by Madmen
Erin Hall
8 Erin Rd, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa
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