There's a kind of hush…

You know that weird feeling when you’ve completed a task and you’ve marked it off your ‘to do’ list and then a few hours later, like at 3AM, your eyes pop open and you’ve realized that you left out something integral to the task, or maybe it was actually due last week, or maybe you didn’t do it at all but that you just dreamed that you did in your first dream cycle that very night? And then you can’t get back to sleep and you refuse to get up to check because, well, that would just be silly; so instead, you practice your Sicilian Defense in your head for your next chess match thinking it will put you to sleep…

Yeh, me neither. I don’t play chess.

I do organize concerts, though, in one format or another. Our last one for our 2020-2021 Season is coming right up! It’s a doozy. Study up on Boccaccio!

See below for more info on our upcoming Tales from the Decameron: A Video Premiere!

Arrivederci!
-Danny

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TALES FROM THE DECAMERON:
A VIDEO PREMIERE

Premiere for TEMPster Members:
Friday, May 7, 2021, 8:00 PM

Premiere for the general public:
Saturday, May 8, 2021, 8:00 PM

The video will be viewable through Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 11:00 pm.
Tickets must be purchased by 9:30 pm on Thursday, May 20, 2021.

Admission: $5 Student/Supporter; $15 Fan; $25 Friend; $50 Patron

The general admission price is the Fan category, $15. If you are struggling financially due to the Coronavirus situation, take advantage of our lower-priced Student/Supporter offer. If you are able to pay a little more, and can help someone else pay less, please do so with the Friend and Patron prices. 

Tickets available in advance online. For those who purchase tickets prior to May 6, an email will be sent to you with video access instructions. Please check your spam folder. After May 6, the video access will be given in your ticket confirmation email and tickets.

TEMPster Members will receive an email with video access; you will not need to purchase tickets to view the concert video.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email boxoffice@early-music.org.

For its final video concert of the season, TEMP will present stories from an extremely timely source: The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of young adults who shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death during the 1348 epidemic. The librettist for our production is Dr. Larry Rosenwald, Anne Pierce Rogers Professor of American Literature and professor of English at Wellesley College; he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 for his wide-ranging work in literary criticism. TEMP’s Artistic Director, Daniel Johnson, and Dr. Rosenwald have presented versions of this project live in three earlier productions in 1995 in Massachusetts, 1996 in Austin, and 2007 in California. Popular ATX actor Marc Pouhé, finalist in the Best Actor category in the 2021 Austin Chronicle’s annual “Best of Austin” poll, is our Narrator.

 Among the subjects in the stories in Boccaccio’s novel include: the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue, and much more. TEMP will depict several of the tales from The Decameron by means of narration, actors, and music, with TEMP’s singers and instrumentalists performing Italian music from the time of Boccaccio. Some of the more important composers featured in the video premiere are Gherardello da Firenze (c.1320-1362/3), Lorenzo da Firenze (d. 1372/3), and Francesco Landini (c.1335-1397). In addition to a few new TEMP performers, some of the featured musicians are singers Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Shari Alise Wilson, Tim O’Brien, Ryland Angel, David Lopez, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, and more. Instrumentalists include Bruce Colson and John Walters on vielles, Elaine Barber (harp), and Josh Peters on oud. We are pleased to include stylish minimalistic costumes and props, created by Juli Orlandini, which greatly add to the overall mood and style of the characters and the stories.

 A short lecture by KMFA’s Sara Schneider will present a bit of historical background to The Decameron and the music of the period before the action begins in earnest, and we catch up with our intrepid group of characters, which has fled Florence to escape the plague.

 As one might expect, there are similarities between the ways that people entertained themselves during the Black Plague 700 years ago and the ways that we do during the time of Covid-19. Creativity and metaphor are in ample usage in both worlds.

Please join us as we reconnect with you through the magic of music.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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