A companion to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Purcell’s “Restoration Spectacular” brings Shakespeare’s comedic world of lovers, fairies, and misunderstandings to the concert stage. Produced in partnership with Sanford Performing Arts Center and featuring Ballet Bloom Project and Bunny Wonderland.

This event will be free to stream on YouTube - the livestream will premiere at 7pm on Saturday, June 12, and will be available afterward on-demand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPPh41vp8E4

Presented by Portland Bach Experience and Maine magazine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a carnival-style concert and community celebration featuring over 20 local arts organizations and eateries. The afternoon opens with an orchestra fanfare, followed by a parade with giant puppets, a Fairy Queen drag show, and a community dance party. Wood nymphs and fairies of all ages are invited to imbibe, dance, and celebrate the power of community through great music.

This online concert features some of the most contemplative music ever composed expressing the sentiment of hope, and the transcendence of death. The repertoire from different eras and genres from Europe and the U.S. encompasses the Renaissance motet with Thomas Tallis, the Baroque aria with Johann Sebastian Bach, and the present with an African-American Spiritual. Christine Gevert, Founder and Artistic Director, directs the performances. This half-hour-long concert is Crescendo’s second in this year (202-21 Season) of remotely produced recordings. Like all performing arts groups, Crescendo has been greatly affected by the pandemic. So, while all activities were moved online, Crescendo seized the opportunity to not only produce an extraordinary amount of repertoire, giving work to more than sixty professional musicians (eg. the Crescendo Vocal Ensemble recorded over fifty Renaissance motets during this year), but also, for our winter concert, to collaborate with renowned performers, coaches, and scholars from three continents. This is also the case for this program that brings together Early Music specialists from four East Coast states, and the internationally acclaimed soloist Nicholas Tamagna, now temporarily based in Oldenburg, Germany. This New York City artist’s career was abruptly put on hold by the shut-down after a stellar premiere at the Metropolitan Opera alongside Joyce DiDonato last February. At the center of this concert are three arias from J.S. Bach’s Matthew Passion, B Minor Mass and Cantata "Komm, du süsse Todesstunde) performed by soprano Jennifer Tyo (Lakeville, CT), countertenor Nicholas Tamagna (New York City and Oldenburg, Germany), tenor Pablo Wiley Bustos (Rochester, NY). They are accompanied by members of the Crescendo Period Instrument Orchestra—Rodrigo Tarraza (traverso), Sarah Davol (oboe da caccia), Job Salazar (violin), Carlos Boltes (viola), Malina Rauschenfels (violoncello), and Christine Gevert (continuo organ). Crescendo’s professional Vocal Ensemble with Nicholas Tamagna (countertenor), Dan Foster and Eric Martin (tenors), Daniel White (baritone), and Jim Barrett (bass) will perform Thomas Tallis’ celebrated Renaissance Tenebrae Motet, “Lamentatio Ieremiae Prophetae” á 5, part 1 (Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah) Operatic soprano Schauntice Shepard from Hartford, CT brings us into a more contemporary era with her unaccompanied rendition of the haunting spiritual, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

Soloists: Pablo Bustos, tenor; Jonathan de la Paz Zaens, baritone (Bach); Elliott Paige, tenor (Dett); Ignacio Ugarte, tenor; José Sacín, baritone (Ramirez); Salomé Sandoval, soprano; Malina Rauschenfels, mezzo soprano, Pablo Bustos, tenor (Villancicos). Crescendo Period Instrument Orchestra (Bach): Christopher Belluscio, trumpets; Daniel Mallon, timpani; Rodrigo Tarraza, traversi; Gonzalo Ruiz, oboes, oboes da caccia and oboes d’amore; Rachel Begley, bassoon; Susanna Ogata (concertino) and Job Salazar, violins; Carlos Boltes, viola; David Bakamjian, violoncello; Heather Miller Lardin, double bass; Hideki Yamaya, gallichon; Christine Gevert, continuo organ; Juan Mesa, organ (Dett); Andean Instrument Ensemble: Gonzalo Cortés, quena, zampoña, bombo; Carlos Boltes, charango; Scott Hill, guitar, Markus Centola, accordion; (Ramirez); Period Instrument Ensemble: Malina Rauschenfels, violoncello; Christa Patton, harp; Hideki Yamaya and Salomé Sandoval, Baroque guitar; Salomé Sandoval, percussion (Villancicos). Crescendo Chorus and Vocal Ensemble Singers Directed by Christine Gevert.

Online Performance.

Music by:

Joseph Bologne, Rafael Antonio Castellanos, Ignatius Sancho, Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia.