Apollo’s Fire: Fire & Folly
Apollo’s Fire’s “Fire and Folly: Myths of Love and Betrayal” proved that melancholy plus damsels in distress equals a fine evening of music and theatre rolled into a delectable experience. British soprano Sophie Daneman, transcendent vocally and theatrically, portrayed the betrayed damsels: Persephone (who went to the Underworld), Phaedra (who fell inappropriately in love [with her step-son]), Dido (who got in the way of the founding of the Roman Empire), and Cleopatra (who gave as good as she got).
Under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell (who also played the harpsichord) the Apollo’s Fire ensemble turned the evening that featured works by Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau, Purcell, and Rene Schiffer (under the pseudonym Rene Du’Chiffre) into a vibrant, lively evening that showed what “timeless” music really means.
A few days after the concert, Apollo’s Fire took the whole program on the road (first, to New York, then to Madrid, Tilburg, Heerlen, and London). What’s next for Cleveland? Another dramatic presentation, this time of Handel’s “Messiah” on Tue 12/14 – Sun 12/19 in Akron, Willoughby Hills, Shaker Heights, and Rocky River.
For tickets to Apollo’s Fire’s performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” visit http://www.ApollosFire.org.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.