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Home  >  Early Music Vancouver Events  >  August 3 Milton in Love: The Birth of Opera in the Eternal City

August 3 Milton in Love: The Birth of Opera in the Eternal City

Thursday, August 3, 2023 | 7:30 p.m. Pyatt Hall


NOTE: Tickets go on sale Monday, April 3 at noon.

Artists: Nadine Balbiesi, Ellen Torrie and Myriam Leblanc, sopranos; Atalante, directed by Erin Headley; Lucas Harris, theorbo; Antoine Malette-Chénier, triple harp  

Milton in Love paints a portrait of the English poet John Milton’s sojourn through Rome where he fraternized with the Illuminati, attended opera and oratorios, and became enamored with the singing of soprano Leonora Baroni. The laments display the sensuality, ecstasy, and eroticism of early Baroque Rome, and the performances by Erin Headley and her ensemble are sure to surprise and delight audiences as well. 

Together with a chitarrone, triple harp, baroque guitar, lirone and viola da gamba, the ensemble supports a trio of female voices who bring to life a multimedia programme of ultra-expressive laments. 

Nadine Balbiesi, soprano

The American/Jordanian Soprano, Nadine Balbeisi launched her international solo career when she moved to Germany, singing Oratorio, Chamber music, Opera and Recitals. Her repertoire extends from the 14th through the 18th Centuries. She has performed with various ensembles and orchestras such as Atalante, Concerto con anima, Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik, and Solamente Naturali, and sings medieval repertoire regularly with the women’s Schola Ars Choralis Coeln.

Nadine founded the duo Cantar alla Viola together with viola da gambist Fernando Marín, dedicating the past 19 years to research, interpretation and rediscovering the musical practice of singing with a viol. Their album of Italian Renaissance music, Segreti Accenti, was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards.

She received a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan, studying with George Shirley and obtained a second degree from the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Barbara Schlick. In 2022 and 2023 the German Music Council – Deutscher Musikrat Neustart Kultur awarded her two grants for projects on 17th Century Italian music and women composers.

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Myriam Leblanc pictured from collarbone up

Myriam Leblanc, soprano

A graduate of McGill University, Myriam Leblanc obtained a master’s degree in choral conducting direction from the University of Sherbrooke. She was a First Prize winner and People’s choice Award winner at the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières Competition, a Jeune Ambassadrice Lyrique in 2014 (Prix Québec-Bavière), Audience Choice Award winner at the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition, Third Prize winner at the Ottawa Choral Society New Discoveries contest, holder of the Excellence grant given annually by l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, First Prize winner in the Mathieu-Duguay Early Music Competition at the 2017 Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival. She has been working in the world of music for few years. Leblanc is recognized for the purity of her tone, a flexible and warm voice and her mastery of both technique and musical expressiveness.

In 2016, she made her debut with the Opéra de Montréal in the role of the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida. La Presse music critic Caroline Rodgers described her voice as one of “rare beauty”. Her more recent performances (2017-2018) include Milica in Sokolovic’s Svadba with Opéra de Montréal, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen with Opéra de Québec and concerts with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kent Nagano, Matthias Maute and Jonathan Cohen. In 2018-2019, she sang a Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, the soprano solos on Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Caprice, the Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.2 “Lobgesang” with l’Orchestre Metropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s direction. Recently, she was a soloist with Les Violons du Roy under Jonathan Cohen’s direction.

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Ellen Torrie, They/Them, soprano

Ellen Torrie is an Ontario-born, soprano and project maker living in Montreal who just completed a master’s degree in early music performance at McGill University under the tutelage of Dominique Labelle. Most recently, Ellen sang the title role in Charpentier’s oratorio Judith with ensemble Capella Antica and is lead soprano at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal.

While studying music therapy at Acadia University, Ellen appeared frequently as a soloist with local ensembles including Symphony Nova Scotia, and was lead soprano of the Manning Chapel Choir from 2014-2018. In 2017, Ellen was awarded the Canadian Federation of University Women scholarship which funded their participation in Accademia Europea Dell’Opera in Lucca, Italy, where they played Oberto in Handel’s Alcina. This experience motivated Ellen to pursue a career in performance and upon graduation, Ellen moved to Montreal to study with soprano Suzie LeBlanc.

Ellen frequently returns to the Maritimes for solo recitals, collaborations, and residencies. Ellen also recently completed an artist residency at Banff Arts and Creativity Centre with Canadian tenor Kerry Bursey, as the newly formed early music/folk duo Kalliope. Ellen is currently exploring the practice of self-accompanying early music on baroque guitar. As a queer, non-binary musician, Ellen is inspired by the possibility that their queer ancestors had their own musical traditions and that through research, creative speculation, and performance, we can tell a more inclusive and rich story about music and humanity.

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Atalante

Erin Headley’s award-winning ensemble Atalante is named in honour of Leonardo da Vinci’s friend and pupil Atalante Migliorotti, the lirone’s inventor. That magical and hauntingly beautiful bowed instrument has been Erin Headley’s domain since 1980 through a number of acclaimed performances and recordings. In the 17th century, the lirone was associated with lament, a genre that first appeared during the generation of Monteverdi and reached its culmination in Rome.

Atalante’s luxurious continuo ensemble of triple harp, chitarrone, keyboards, viol consort and lirone accompany a sublimely dark repertoire that has been languishing in the Vatican Library for 300 years. Atalante’s debuted in 2009, at the Southbank Centre in London, with staged performances of the laments of Artemisia, Helen of Troy, Mary Magdalene and the Blessed Virgin. The ensemble’s exploration and revival of this fascinating repertoire, including the staging and filming of it, has received continuing support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain. Atalante has made four recordings in their series Reliquie di Roma – music by Luigi Rossi, Marco Marazzoli, Giacomo Carissimi, Domenico Mazzocchi, Bernardo Pasquini and Alessandro Stradella – which have been released on Destino Classics (Nimbus Alliance). Members of Atalante come from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the USA.

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Erin Headley, music director

More than thirty years of performing as an internationally acclaimed viola da gamba and lirone player with such top-flight ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, Tragicomedia and many others, countless recordings on major labels, and her unique status as the world’s leading authority on the lirone have made Erin Headley preeminent in the field of early music. Before the founding of Atalante, Erin Headley had already made more than 100 CDs on labels such as  Harmonia Mundi France, Hyperion, and Deutsche Grammophon. She is the author of the lirone articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition) and The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments.  To further her research on the lirone, in 2007 Erin Headley was awarded a prestigious Arts and Humanities Research Council fellowship in residence at the University of Southampton, where she is now an honorary fellow.

In 2011 she received a Distinguished Alumnus award from Pennsylvania State University, and in the spring of 2013, she was Musician-in-Residence at the prestigious Villa I Tatti, Harvard University’s Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. To ensure that the instrument and its Italian repertoire flourish as they did in the 17th century, Erin Headley has produced and presented staged performances, recordings, videos, masterclasses, lectures, published articles and performing editions to reach a larger audience. 

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Lucas Harris, theorbo

Toronto-based Lucas Harris discovered the lute during his undergraduate studies at Pomona College, and went on to study the lute and early music at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano and at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. He is a founding member of the Toronto Continuo Collective, the Vesuvius Ensemble and the Lute Legends Collective (an association of specialists in ancient plucked-string traditions from diverse cultures) and is the regular lutenist for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Lucas plays with many other ensembles in Canada and the USA and has worked with the  Smithsonian Chamber Players, Atalante, and Jordi Savall / Le Concert des Nations amongst others.

He teaches at the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes, Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, and the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School, and is a regular guest artist with Early Music Vancouver. Lucas is also the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir, for which he has created and conducted more than twenty themed concert programs. One of Mr. Harris’ many pandemic projects was the reconstruction of 12 solo voice motets by the Italian nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani. 

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Antoine Malette-Chénier, triple harp

An innovative and creative harpist, Antoine Malette-Chénier plays a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance and the Baroque (on period instruments), to contemporary creations. Principal harp of the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Antoine has played with numerous ensembles in Canada, France and the United States, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Les Violons du Roy, and the Studio de Musique ancienne de Montréal, both as a soloist, chamber, orchestral and continuo player. Antoine has won many awards, including the 2014 Michael Measures prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, a first prize at the 2013 Montréal Symphony Orchestra Competition, and two scholarships from the National Arts Centre Orchestra. He holds degrees in modern and historical harps interpretation from the Yale School of Music, McGill University, the University of Montréal and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon.

 


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