Event Description
“Blind love I do not trust to thee, that makes desires full of obscurity”. Thus comments the chorus in Guarini’s play, “The Faithful Shepherd” (Il pastor fido) on two lovers’ passionate but beleaguered love tale. In the third act of the play, set in the idyllic pastoral world of Arcadia, two lovers play a game of “Blind Man’s Bluff” (or Gioco della Cieca, as it is known in Italian). One, Amaryllis, is blindfolded and accidentally ends up in the arms of the other, Mirtillo, who desires her, unbeknownst to her and the community. While the two characters wander sightless—Amaryllis because of the blindfold, Mirtillo because of his tormented love—Guarini’s chorus bemoans the treacherous and false nature of blind love.
Taking as an inspiration the vocal and instrumental works of late 16th and early 17th century Italian composers such as deWert, Caccini, Kapsberger and d’India, the ensemble Concerto di Margherita presents a fable of an archetypal Lover, caught, like Amaryllis in Guarini’s play, in a cruel game of Blind Man’s Bluff. Playing with sight and visibility throughout the concert, the musicians, who all sing and accompany themselves on their instrument, take the audience with them on the Lover’s path: born in Arcadian innocence, blinded and deluded by love, lost and disoriented in darkness and finding solace in obscurity.
Music by deWert, Caccini, Kapsberger, d’India, Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi and more.
Thu. October 1st
St Andrews Cathedral Victoria BC
$39
In-Person Event
7:30pm - 9:30pm Doors at: 7:00pm
