The Hispanic Society’s 2020-2021 Concert Series are devoted to the production of the North American premiere of the opera, Apolo y Dafne (ca. 1696–99), in collaboration with the ensemble, Sonnambula. Apolo y Dafne is a dramatic opera, or zarzuela, by Spanish baroque composers Sebastián Durón (1660–1716) and Juan de Navas (ca. 1650–1719). This opera marks the most ambitious collaboration between Sonnambula and the Hispanic Society to date.
The Palacio de la Zarzuela, a royal hunting lodge just outside Madrid, takes its name from the brambly thicket of woods on which it stands. Beginning in 1657, a new genre of musical drama was performed at the Palacio. This new form, called “zarzuela,” references the wild, tangled vegetation around which it was born, a crown of laurels on Spain’s musical history. Baroque zarzuela is rarely performed in America — most manuscripts reside in Spanish libraries and have not been published in modern editions. The opportunity to premiere this zarzuela at Hispanic culture is of deep importance.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts.
What makes this work special?
Uniquely scored for seven sopranos and five-part choir, the work may pay tribute to the Italian tradition of concerto delle dame, in which ensembles of women were hired to perform for high-paying patrons. No other dramatic work of the seventeenth century features a woman-driven cast of this sort. The work is also thus notable for its three extended laments, and — rare for the genre of zarzuela — contains no spoken text and is instead completely sung. Apolo y Dafne’s dramatic song is set off by Italianate instrumental composition, featuring an ensemble comprising oboes, trumpets, violins, and presented with a large basso continuo group (viola da gamba, cello, harp, theorbo, baroque guitar, and harpsichord).
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
February 22, 2021- Live YouTube Event
Live Conversation with Guillaume Bernardi, Stage Director and Elizabeth Weinfield, Artistic Director
Baroque opera veteran Guillaume Bernardi (Oper Frankfurt) will walk audiences, via livestream, through the complicated and fascinating process of mounting an opera production. What is the role of a stage director, and how is this complicated during a streamed concert? Learn about opera production behind the scenes from a deeply historical perspective while learning a bit about the opera itself.
March 31, 2021- Live YouTube Event
Live Conversation about the opera with guest artists Esteban La Rotta (baroque guitar) and Camille Zamora (soprano)
Part conversation, part lecture-demonstration, listen in on the musicians of Sonnambula as they describe the intriguing complications of learning an opera that no one knows.
Featuring Elizabeth Weinfield (viola da gamba and direction) with guests Esteban La Rotta (baroque guitar) and Camille Zamora (soprano).
Esteban La Rotta is one of Canada’s leading lutenists. His interest in the origins of the lute as a polyphonic instrument brought him to pursue a specialization in late Medieval and early Renaissance repertoire at the Schola Cantorum Basel under the guidance of renowned lutenists Crawford Young and Hopkinson Smith. As a specialist in a variety of early plucked instruments, La Rotta has extensive experience with the early renaissance repertoire as well as with Baroque Italian and French repertoire for solo theorbo. He is a regular participant at Festival Montréal Baroque and has collaborated with ensembles such as the Copenhagen Soloists, Les Violons du Roy, Les Voix Humaines, Les idées Heureuses, Ensemble Caprice, and Pallade Musica. His performances have been broadcast on the CBC in Canada and the BBC in England. He can be heard on the Atma, Passacaille, and Recercare labels, both as a soloist and as an ensemble player. He holds the Doctorate of Music degree in baroque guitar and teaches on the faculty of music at McGill University.
In collaboration with artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Sting, Soprano Camille Zamora has garnered acclaim from The New York Times for her “dramatic and nuanced” interpretations of repertoire ranging from Mozart to tango. She is known for her dignity and glowing sound in performances that The Houston Chronicle says “combine gentility and emotional fire.” Hailed by NBC Latino and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as a leading interpreter of classical Spanish song, her performances have been heard on five continents, and broadcast live on PBS, Deutsche Radio, and the BBC. Camille is the Co-Founder of Sing for Hope, a leading “arts peace corps” that creates initiatives – such as the Sing for Hope Pianos in community spaces from the Bronx to Beirut – that drive the mission of art for all. She has presented and performed at The United Nations, the US Capitol, Aspen Institute, Harvard University, Oxford University, and the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship. She has been honored as a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Award and named one of the Top 50 Americans in Philanthropy by Town&Country, NY1’s New Yorker of the Week, and one of CNN’s Most Intriguing People. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Camille serves on the boards of Juilliard, Eaglebrook, and Grameen Creative Lab.
May 24, 2021- YouTube Event at 6:00pm
Concert Premiere
Virtuosos Españoles: Spanish Masterworks of the Eighteenth Century
Featuring
Performance with Jude Ziliak (violin) and James Kennerley (harpsichord)
Join us live! Sonnambula’s Jude Ziliak and James Kennerley present an enchanting pre-recorded concert of baroque music from the eighteenth century, featuring rarely-heard gems by Jose Herrando, Juan Oliver y Astorga, Domenico Scarlatti, and Marianna Martinez. Audiences will be treated to Herrando’s vivid sonic depiction of the celebrated Garden of Aranjuez in springtime — and the North American premiere of an as-yet unrecorded virtuosic sonata by Oliver y Astorga (1676). There will be a live Q&A with the artists after the concert.
Hailed as “a great organist” displaying “phenomenal technique and sheer musicality” (Bloomberg News), James Kennerley is a multi-faceted musician who works as a conductor, keyboardist, singer, and educator. Prizewinner at the 2008 Albert Schweitzer International Organ Competition, and a finalist at the inaugural (2013) Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, he has given concerts at Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum, Washington National Cathedral, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the Royal Albert Hall, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, London, and many other major organ venues in the USA and Europe. As Organ Scholar of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, he had the honor of performing in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen on several occasions. Mr. Kennerley is the director of music at St. Paul’s Choir School and Parish in Cambridge, MA. He was Organist and Choirmaster at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, New York City from 2013–2019. Lauded as an “excellent, true-toned tenor” by The New Yorker critic Alex Ross, he has performed as a soloist with many ensembles, including New York Polyphony, the Choir of Trinity Church, Wall Street; Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue; the American Classical Orchestra; TENET; and the Clarion Music Society. He has been a featured soloist with the Mark Morris Dance Company at BAM, and in Handel’s Messiah at Alice Tully Hall. Other notable collaborators include William Christie, Richard Egarr, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Hogwood, Monica Huggett, Julian Wachner, and many others. As a conductor Mr. Kennerley made his New York conducting debut at Lincoln Center in 2009 and regularly conducts Sonnambula’s larger ensemble projects, including a concert of 18th-century world premières from Cuba at New York’s Hispanic Society, works by Spanish-Venetian composer, Marianna Martines, and a program of contemporary commissions at Princeton University. A composer, as well, he has taken home the first-prize in the Association of Anglican Musicians Composition Competition; his 2012 piece Lauda novella was featured as part of the Twelfth Night Festival at Trinity Church, Wall Street. Mr. Kennerley is frequently in demand as a performer and educator in improvisation, having studied the technique with Robert Levin, McNeil Robinson, and Noam Sivan at The Juilliard School. A native of the United Kingdom, Mr. Kennerley is the director of music at St. Paul’s Choir School and Parish in Cambridge, MA. He was Organist and Choirmaster at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, New York City from 2013-2019. Mr. Kennerley was appointed the Municipal Organist of Portland, Maine, by the Mayor in September 2017, following a unanimous vote from the Search Committee and the City Council. Mr. Kennerley is a graduate of Harrow and Jesus College, Cambridge University, where he was Organ Scholar. He holds a graduate degree in harpsichord from the Historical Performance program at The Juilliard School. For more information, please visit www.jameskennerley.com.
Jude Ziliak is a violinist who specializes in historical performance, writ large. His activities embrace a wide repertoire from the fifteenth century to the present. In addition to Sonnambula, he is a principal player with the American Bach Soloists. He teaches violin and directs string ensembles at the Special Music School (P.S. 859), New York’s K–12 public school for musically gifted children. Ziliak frequently serves as concertmaster or principal second violin with the American Bach Soloists, appearing in both capacities in their recordings since 2014, and has performed several concerti with the ensemble. He has also performed with The English Concert under the direction of Harry Bicket, Les Arts Florissants under William Christie, and many of North America’s period instrument orchestras, including the Clarion Society, Blue Hill Bach, Teatro Nuovo, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, and Musica Angelica. As a chamber musician, he has been a guest of Cantata Profana and the Four Nations Ensemble and has collaborated with Elizabeth Blumenstock, Richard Egarr, Florence Malgoire, and Jaap Schroder. Ziliak studied Historical Performance at the Juilliard School as a pupil of Monica Huggett and Cynthia Roberts. While there, he encountered many leading figures in the field of early music, including Fabio Biondo, Ton Koopman, Jordi Savall, and Masaaki Suzuki. Studies with Joshua Rifkin and David Schulenberg ground his approach to the study of performance practice. Trained as a modern violinist at Rice University (Master of Music), Boston University (Bachelor of Music), and the Royal College of Music, London, his principal teachers were Bayla Keyes, Kenneth Goldsmith, and Dona Lee Croft. A former member of Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival Orchestra, he has been concertmaster at the National Orchestral Institute under Andrew Litton and led orchestras there as a New Lights Fellow. In 2018 Ziliak received the Jeffrey Thomas Award from the American Bach Soloists, awarded annually to recognize “exceptionally gifted emerging professionals in the field of early music who show extraordinary promise and accomplishment.” Raised in Sewanee, Tennessee, he now makes his home in New York with his wife, violist da gamba Elizabeth Weinfield, and their son.
June 28, 2020 – LIVESTREAM PREMIERE
North American Premiere of Apollo y Dafne (1696)
SONNAMBULA
Elizabeth Weinfield, Artistic Director
Jude Ziliak*, Violin/Leader
Toma Iliev*, Violin
Elizabeth Weinfield*, Viola da gamba
Amy Domingues*, Cello
Christa Patton, Harp
James Kennerley*, Harpsichord/Music Direction
Esteban La Rotta, Music Direction (In Absentia)
Stage Direction by Elena Araoz
Starring
BRIANA HUNTER as AMOR
NOLA RICHARDSON as APOLO
CAMILLE ZAMORA as DAFNE
*Sonnambula core member
Recorded live at The Hispanic Society Museum & Library. New York City, June 10-11, 2021. During the Covid-19 Pandemic
PROGRAM & TEXTS
Text is anonymous (17th century)
Translations are by Esteban La Rotta and Jude Ziliak
Overture, Hoy viene el amor
Zagales, a quien mi culto (Amor)
Zagales, a quien mi culto
reverentemente alienta,
al consagrarme en Tesalia
las aras que Ap[o]lo deja
preciso es que a todos
mi afecto agradezca
los nuevos inciensos
que exhala la hoguera.
Desde aquel primero día
que penetraron la esfera
los fatales desalientos
de vuestras tristes endechas,
tuve decretado
bajar a que vea
el orbe a mi cargo
tan justa defensa.
Ese monstruo, aborto horrible
de melancólica quiebra
de ese peñasco, por donde
todo el abismo bosteza,
busquemos por montes,
por valles y selvas
hasta hacerle blanco
de nuestras saetas.
Mas mirad que desde hoy,
en fe de que esto me deba,
Tesalia ha de consagrarme
los templos que Apolo tenga,
que pues en las manos
del peligro os deja,
no es razón que goce
lo que no merezca.
Ye shepherds, worshiping me with spirit,
who consecrated to me
the altar in Thessaly that
Apolo forsook,
I am grateful for the incense
That the bonfire exhales.
From the first day
that the sound of your mourning
filled the celestial orb,
I resolved
to descend and oversee
the defense of my
earthly domain.
That monstrous, horrible abomination
of melancholy, coming from the broken hill
where the abyss yawns:
Let’s hunt him, over the mountains,
valleys, and forests
until our arrows
find him.
But know that from this day,
faithfully rewarding my deeds,
Thessaly will consecrate to me
every one of Apolo’s temples.
He who abandons you
in harm’s way should not reap
ill-gotten rewards.
Pues vive el soberano sitial del sol (Apolo)
Pues vive el soberano sitial del sol
y esfera de la luna,
y a la Estigialaguna
que este arpón inhumano
no deje en todo el monte,
en busca de la fiera,
escandaloso horror de su horizonte,
valle ni soto, cumbre ni ribera
que no penetre, para que postrada
vuelva contra el Amor mi saña airada.
By the high seat of the sun,
the orb of the moon,
and the Styx river,
this celestial spear
will turn every rock
in search of the beast.
There is no valley or cave, hill or river
that it cannot penetrate, and nothing will satisfy
my furious rage against Amor.
Guarda, guárdate (Apolo)
Guarda, guárdate, Amor,
que van contra ti
injuria y furor
que a un tiempo sentí.
Y no han de saber industria y poder librarte de mí.
Guarda, guárdate, Amor,
que van contra ti
injuria y furor
que a un tiempo sentí.
Beware, guard yourself, Amor,
for wrath and fury grow within me.
You cannot manifest
the will or the strength
to save yourself from me.
Cazador de estos montes (Instrumental)
Cristal apacible (Dafne)
Dafne: Cristal apacible,
céfiro sutil,
blando ruiseñor,
cándido jazmín,
no cantéis, no, no.
Eco: No, no, no, no.
Dafne: Sí pausáis, sí, sí.
Eco: Sí, sí, sí, sí.
Dafne: Que vencer la fatiga es razón.
Eco: Vencer es razón.
Dafne: Que triunfar del cansancio es ardid.
Eco: Triunfar es ardid.
Dafne: Y si es que trináis,
si es que gorjeáis,
y si es que bullís,
así a media voz calme lo veloz,
dejadme dormir.
Eco: Dejadla dormir,
cristal apacible,
céfiro sutil,
blando ruiseñor,
cándido jazmín.
Dafne: Undoso padre mío,
Peneo, cuya margen elegí,
para que a mi cansancio
rinda catres de rosa y alhelí,
dejadme dormir.
Eco: Dejadla dormir,
cristal apacible,
céfiro sutil,
blando ruiseñor,
cándido jazmín.
Dafne: En tanto que la siesta
olvida el sol, pasando hasta el nadir,
a que le sea el golfo
sepulcro de cristal y azul viril,
dejadme dormir.
Eco: Dejadla dormir,
cristal apacible,
céfiro sutil,
blando ruiseñor,
cándido jazmín.
Dafne: En tu apacible orilla,
a quien bordó de rosas el Abril,
pretende mi cuidado
dar principio al sosiego más feliz,
dejadme dormir.
Eco: Dejadla dormir,
cristal apacible,
céfiro sutil,
blando ruiseñor,
cándido jazmín.
Dafne:
Peaceful stream,
subtle Zephyrus,
soft nightingale,
naive jasmine,
sing no more, no, no.
Eco:
No, No
Dafne:
Yes, stop, yes, yes,
Eco:
Yes, yes
Dafne:
I must conquer fatigue
Eco:
To conquer fatigue is wise
Dafne:
To triumph over fatigue is a feat
Eco:
To triumph is a feat
Dafne:
And if you trill,
If you tweet
If you fizz
Do it softly
Do it slowly,
Let me sleep
Eco:
Let her sleep, gentle stream, subtle Zephyrus, soft nightingale, naive jasmine.
Father of mine, great river Peneo,
shore that I chose,
I will surrender to my weariness,
and let it find a bed of rose and wallflower.
Let me sleep.
As I sleep,
I will forget the sun crossing the sky.
Let the sea be my tomb of crystal.
Let me sleep.
Upon your peaceful shore,
where April was embroidered with roses,
my care will give way to sweet peace.
Let me sleep.
“Pasacalle,” from Il Primo Libro (Naples, 1650); Andrea Falconieri (1585/6–1656)
Apolo, Apolo, espera (Dafne, Apolo)
Dafne [dormida]: Apolo, Apolo, espera.
Apolo: Al villano he perdido en la ribera
que al bosque mi ardimiento conducía.
Dafne: Compadézcate, Apolo, el ansia mía.
Apolo: Pero, ¿quién me ha nombrado?
Dafne: No permitas que el hado,
cuando tronco me mire este horizonte,
me haga frondoso efímero de el monte.
Apolo: ¿Qué veo, cielos? Dormida una ninfa se advierte.
Ya no es el sueño imagen de la muerte,
pues logra sus imperios en la vida.
Conmigo hablan sin alma sus desvelos.
¿Despertarele? Sí.
Dafne: Valedme, cielos.
Dafne (asleep): Apolo, Apolo, wait
Apolo: I lost the beast by the river. My ardour drives me towards him.
Dafne: Who is calling me?
Dafne: Don’t let him
turn me into ephemeral leaves.
Apolo: Heavens, what do I see? A sleeping nymph.
Dreams are not only the image of death;
their realm is now in life.
She speaks to me from her soul in her restless sleep.
Dafne: Great heavens!
Astros, favor (Dafne)
Astros, favor,
cielos, piedad,
favor, favor,
dioses, piedad.
Que me sigue la crueldad
y el error
de una deidad
cuyo amor
labra mi fatalidad.
Astros, favor,
cielos, piedad,
favor, favor,
dioses, piedad.
Stars, grant your favor,
Heavens, have mercy,
Favor me, favor me,
Gods, have mercy.
I cannot escape the cruelty and folly
of the deity
whose love
threatens my fate.
“Xacaras por primer tono,” from Luz y norte Musical (Madrid, 1677); Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz
(1626–after 1677)
A qué les dioses pides, ninfa bella (Apolo)
¿A qué dioses le[s] pides, ninfa bella,
a qué astro, a qué estrella
favor, si es que le quieres?
Bastante deidad eres
para lograr despojos,
y mejores estrellas son tus ojos.
To which gods do you pray, beautiful Nymph?
From which star are you seeking favor?
You are enough of a goddess yourself to cause devastation,
and your eyes reflect the stars.
Pause el ánimo tímido ya (Apolo)
Pause el ánimo tímido ya,
vuelve, ninfa hermosísima, en ti.
Y di qué motivo tu pecho tendrá
de haber entre sueños hablado de mí.
Pause el ánimo tímido ya,
vuelve, ninfa hermosísima, en ti.
Enough with your timid mood.
Come back to your senses, beautiful Nymph,
And tell me what is in your heart
that made you call to me in a dream.
Pastores corred (Instrumental)
No temáis, asustados zagales (Amor, Apolo, Dafne)
Amor: No temáis, asustados zagales,
el bruto terror deste ameno confín,
que, sabiendo de[l] cielo triunfar,
sabré con mi[s] flechas un mostro rendir.
Apolo: Bella ninfa, perdona, que [e]l eco
de aquella amenaza distante que oí
me convida, exaltando mi gloria,
al alto trofeo que vine [a] adquirir.
Dafne: Escuchad, atended, mas ay, cielos,
que al miedo, al pavor, al asombro sin mí,
viva estatua de hielo, no acierto
ni [a] hablar, ni [a] alentar, ni a cobrar, ni a huir.
Amor (from inside):
Don’t fear, wise shepherds,
the nightmarish beast.
I know how to win a contest in heaven,
And I will destroy the beast with my arrows.
Apolo:
Beautiful Nymph, I beg you, leave.
I hear the distant rumbling of the old menace.
It beckons me to come out in my glory to claim my trophy.
Daphne:
Hark! Listen! Oh heavens.
The fear, the dread, the astonishment:
Like a statue of ice, I cannot
speak, I can give no warning, I cannot pursue the beast, I cannot flee.
¿De quién, zagales, corréis? (Apolo, Amor)
Apolo: ¿De quién, zagales, corréis?
Amor: ¿De quién, pastores, huís?
Apolo: Si siendo mi aliento cavado141 tambor,
Amor: si si[e]ndo mi voz animoso clarín,
Los Dos: os llama hoy a ver mi diestra vencer,
mi brazo rendir,
al tantán de su tintirirín.
Apolo: Shepherds, who are you running from?
Amor: Why do you flee?
Apolo: My voice is a deep drum.
Amor: My voice is like the joyful trumpet .
Both: It calls you to victory with a tan-tan-tan and a tin-tirin tin.
Muere, bruto terror deste horizonte (Apolo)
Muere, bruto terror deste horizonte,
muere, viviente susto deste monte.
Cielo y tierra, sabed que he conseguido
victorias de Fitón y de Cupido.
Die, crude terror that fills the horizon!
Die, nightmare from under the mountain!
Heaven and earth, witness
my victory over Fiton and Cupid.
Murió la fiera y yo he muerto (Amor)
Murió la fiera y yo he muerto,
ay, infelice de mí,
ella al arpón que el pecho le ha abierto
y yo con el tiro más duro y más cierto.
¡Qué tarde [e]speré! ¡Qué presto sentí!
Ay, infelice de mí.
¿A dónde, santos cielos,
he de ir, si ya me infama
con tan nuevo desprecio
mi propia tolerancia?
Yo, que vine aplaudido
a librar con mis ansias
a Tesalia del riesgo,
¿desairado en Tesalia?
Ocultarme resuelvo
hasta que mi venganza
pueda sanear el golpe
que mi deidad ultraja.
Y guárdense montes,
y guárdense fieras,
y guárdense plantas
de mi ira, mi furia,
mi ardor y mi saña,
que aún quedan arpones
de amor en la aljaba.
The beast is dead, and so am I.
Alas, miserable me.
The beast is slain by the blade that opened its chest,
But I die by a crueler blow.
I waited too long! The blow came too quickly!
Alas, miserable me.
Where, holy heavens,
can I go, if I am haunted ceaselessly
by my own sorrow?
I, who came in glory,
and fought to free Thessaly:
Was I ever wanted in Thessaly?
I will hide until my vengeance
can heal the wounds
and the ignominy I have suffered.
Hide, mountains,
hide, beasts,
hide, plants,
hide from my wrath, my fury,
my passion and my rage.
There still some arrows left
in Amor’s quiver. [Exit Amor]