December 8, 2017
NEW YORK BAROQUE INCORPORATED, VIOLINIST AND DIRECTOR ROBERT MEALY AND CHOREOGRAPHERS CAROLINE COPELAND AND CARLOS FITTANTE PRESENT THE BIG WIG: A FRENCH BAROQUE DANCE MIX
The Big Wig: A French Baroque Dance Mix
The Big Wig: A French Baroque Dance Mix
New York Baroque Incorporated

French baroque opera went above and beyond spectacular singing. It was equally about the dance. And the wigs. The Big Wigs.

On December 20, 2017, New York Baroque Incorporated (NYBI) channels l’esprit français with The Big Wig: A French Baroque Dance Mix, an imaginative program at The Metropolitan Museum’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, guest-directed by Grammy Award-winning violinist Robert Mealy and featuring choreography by virtuoso baroque dancers Caroline Copeland and Carlos Fittante.

The first half of NYBI’s program is devoted to 17th-century works by Jean-Baptiste Lully, an iconoclastic composer who had an indispensable gift for providing lavish spectacles for his employer the King at the court of Versailles. The program opens with two orchestral suites, the first from the comedic Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, and the second from the tragédie-lyrique, Thesée. Copeland and Fittante then take center stage, dancing in period costumes – and wigs – to excerpts from the operas Les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée, Les jeux pithiens, Atys, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Acis et Galatée, all of which were originally choreographed by Louis-Guillaume Pécour. History has preserved meticulous details of Pécour’s eloquent and virtuosic steps, movements, floor patterns and hand gestures, which Copeland and Fittante will recreate.

The second half of NYBI’s program ventures into the 18th century with works by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Georg Frideric Handel. The orchestral suite from Rameau’s comédie-ballet, Les Indes galantes, represents a uniquely international purview for its time, encompassing French, Italian, Spanish, Incan, Persian and Native American scenarios. The dancers return for the work of the most cosmopolitan of baroque composers, the German born Handel who ventured to Italy, settled in England, and out of sheer entrepreneurship absorbed the French dance style into his opéra-ballet, Terpsichore. Catherine Turocy, acclaimed founder of The New York Baroque Dance Company and mentor to Copeland and Fittante, cameo-choreographs the “Air/Gelosia” from this suite.

New York Baroque Incorporated’s dance theme continues in the spring of 2018, when the ensemble collaborates with Peak Performances at Montclair State University, featuring contemporary dance by Israeli choreographer Inbal Oshman set to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s 18th century musical setting of the Stabat Mater.

                                                                                                                                   * * * * *

For further information about New York Baroque Incorporated please visit http://www.nybaroque.org

For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, +1 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com  

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Wednesday, December 20, 2017 – 7:00 pm
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687)
Suite from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, LWV 43 (1670) Ouverture
Premier Intermède
Gavotte des Tailleurs
Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs — Seconde Air pour les Turcs
Premier air des Espagnols
Menuets pour les Poitevins
Chaconne des Scaramouches, Trivelins, et Arlequins

Suite from Thesée (1675)
Ouverture
La Marche
Premier Air: Gigue
Seconde Air: Sarabande
Premier Air pour l’entrée triomphante de Thesée
Air pour les viellards
Premier Air pour les habitans de l’Enfer — Seconde Air de l’Enfer
Premier Menuet pour les habitans de l’île enchantée — Menuet des Bergers
Chaconne

Dances for the Opera:
Ouverture from Les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée, LWV 22 (1644)
Entrée pour un homme et une femme from Les jeux pithiens, LWV 42 (1669)
Gavotte from Atys, LWV 53 (1676)
Sarabande Espagnolle from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, LWV 43 (1670)
Chaconne from Acis et Galatée, LWV 73 (1686)

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 – 1764)
Suite from Les Indes galantes (1735)
Ouverture
Premier et seconde Menuets
Musette en rondeau
Rigaudons
Orage
Air pour les Amours
Danse du Grand Calumet de Paix
Tambourins
Chaconne from Dardanus (1739)

George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759)
Suite from Terpsichore
Prelude
Chaconne
Sarabanda
Menuet
Gigue
Air: Gelosia
Passepied

New York Baroque Incorporated
with
Robert Mealy violin and director
Caroline Copeland and Carlos Fittante baroque dancers

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

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