Pro-Musica Baroque Opera || Bellas Artes
Event Category: Musical Events and Theatrical Events
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Pro-Musica Baroque Opera
Wednesday, February 20
7:00 pmBellas Artes
Read the Atencion article . . .
On Wednesday, February 20th at 7 pm in the auditorium of the Bellas Artes on Hernandez Macias, Pro Musica stages the first Baroque operas to be heard in San Miguel for nearly a decade. The two comic works are Bach’s delightful and amusing Coffee Cantata and Pergolesi’s equally funny La Serva Padrona. They will be accompanied by a ten piece ensemble of Baroque style instruments, with some of the best players in Mexico. The Bach will be sung in German and the Pergolesi in Italian, with supertitles in English and Spanish.
The Coffee Cantata was a musical protest against Frederick the Great’s (King of Prussia 1740-1786) ban on coffee drinking by all women and classes except the rich. Think President Trump issuing an Executive Order to close down every branch of Starbucks! However, then, as it would now, the addictive drink proved more powerful than the King’s ban and proclamation that “My people must drink beer”! His policy was designed to keep Prussians from paying foreign merchants a fortune for coffee beans, but it was a flop. Clearly he had not done his homework on tariffs and trade wars! He also pursued a campaign to get doctors to warn women that coffee caused sterility. Evidence that this argument fell on deaf ears comes in the last lines of the libretto when Lieschen gloats that her mother as well as her grandmother were just as keen on coffee as she was (or sex?).
In La Serva Padrona, we move from coffee to chocolate. Uberto, an elderly bachelor, is angry and impatient with his maid, Serpina, because she has not brought him his chocolate. She has become so arrogant that she thinks she is the mistress of the house. Indeed, when Uberto calls for his hat and coat, Serpina forbids him from leaving the house, adding that from then on he will have to obey her orders (sounds just like my housekeeper!). Uberto decides the only way out of the situation is to find a woman to marry so that he can rid himself of Serpina. I won’t spoil the rest of the fun for you!
As if all this were not enough, to put you in the mood for these mini-masterpieces, prior to them the cast will perform four arias by Monteverdi, Gluck and Handel.
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