Audiences at NOVA Chamber Music Series' concerts have come to expect programs that are often eclectic or that fall outside the standard chamber repertoire, and today's concert certainly fits the bill.
With the tongue-in-cheek title "From Bard to Verse," the program explores the relationship that composers have had with the works of William Shakespeare over the centuries.
The brainchild of frequent NOVA guest artist Paul Dorgan, the concert features a trio of local singers — soprano Julie Wright-Costa, baritone David Power, both of whom are members of the University of Utah department of music, and up-and-coming tenor Brigham Timpson (who just completed his master's degree at the U. and was recently seen as Jenik in Lyric Opera Ensemble's production of Bedrich Smetana's "The Bartered Bride").
They will be accompanied by Dorgan at the piano, and popular Salt Lake actor Anne Cullimore Decker will be the speaker. "Anne is the reason I'm doing this," Dorgan said. "Barb (NOVA music director Barbara Scowcroft) called and asked if I wanted to do something again. And I got the idea about having a program with Anne. Barb liked it. So I called Anne."
The texts are taken principally from Shakespeare's poetry and plays, with a few side excursions into other works, including Wallace Steven's "Peter Quince at the Clavier." "The Stevens poem ties in well because Peter Quince is one of the characters in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' " Dorgan said.
He added that the audience shouldn't expect the texts to be a commentary on the music or vice versa. "Essentially, most of the works are settings of Shakespeare, and most of the readings are by Shakespeare about music. They really don't connect."
The music for the program consists of songs by Haydn, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Arthur Honegger, Ernest Chausson, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
Dorgan said that it wasn't difficult finding suitable songs to use. The challenge was in sorting through so many works. "There are thousands of settings of Shakespeare."
While he was compiling the music, Dorgan uncovered some
works that were new to him. "I made some delightful discoveries. I didn't know the Honegger and Chausson settings. And I didn't realize how obsessed Castelnuovo-Tedesco was with Shakespeare. He set 43 of Shakespeare's songs and many of his sonnets. He wrote 11 overtures to various plays and two complete operas."
The Haydn songs were also a pleasant surprise. "Haydn wrote these in his later years when he went to London. While he was there, he met up with Anne Hunter, who was the wife of a surgeon and a poet. He set some of her poems, and it was probably she who introduced him to Shakespeare. And these English songs are some of his best in his output."
Dorgan said that much of this music is not only new to him but also to other musicians. "Last fall I was in Atlanta with the Atlanta Opera. I took the music with me so I could work on it. One day, the conductor, Fred Scott, looked through it and said, 'There's a lot of stuff here I don't know at all.' "
But having a program with unfamiliar songs should add to the audience's enjoyment, Dorgan said. "It's a little out of the ordinary, but I still think it's going to be fun, and I hope the audience will like it."
If you go ...
What: "From Bard to Verse," NOVA Chamber Music Series
Where: Utah Museum of Fine Arts Auditorium, University of Utah
When: Today, 3 p.m.
How much: $15 general, $12 seniors, $5 students, free 15 and under
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com