Civic Orchestra of Victoria - November 16th
Hi everyone,
This newsletter is coming out a little closer to concert day than it usually would, but I’ve been understandably mired in existential dread. Whatever we do about all this, we must find some joy in our lives wherever we can. So here I am, and maybe here you will be, too.
Here’s what we have for you this weekend:
Suppé, Poet and Peasant Overture. A fun pastoral romp, it’s the introductory music to an operetta in which a poet is trying to woo both a rich young lady and a farmer’s daughter. Apparently there’s a seduction scene set in a haystack. Don’t think too hard about this one.
Delibes, Suite from Sylvia. I hadn’t known much about the ballet Sylvia before playing this, but what I did know was the music in this suite. I am quite certain that I have seen drag performances set to every single movement of it, although the third and fourth movements are more common choices for that. Anyway, the actual plot of the ballet is about frolicking Greek nymphs who hunt things and fall in love and have a big party and you know what, you can really picture either them or the drag queens for this one, it works equally well either way.
Dvorak, Symphony No. 6
This was written for the Vienna Philharmonic in 1880, at the behest of its music director, but it wasn’t premiered in Vienna due to growing anti-Czech sentiment there, giving us yet another example of why xenophobia is for total losers. Instead it debuted in Prague. Brahms was a huge musical influence on Dvorak at the time and you can hear that all over this piece, especially in the last movement. In turn, John Williams definitely used ideas from the Scherzo for his Duel of the Fates theme from the Star Wars films.
The concert is at the Dave Dunnet Theatre on Saturday, November 16th, at 2pm, and our music director, Grant Harville, will give a pre-concert talk at 1pm. You can get tickets here.
As always, thanks for listening, and come say hi if you make it to the show.