Medieval Delights at the Fringe

Coming soon in the 2012 Dunedin Fringe Festival: a Dunedin Medieval and Renaissance Society production SEX *DEATH*MAGIC: Renaissance Poetry Unbound

Before reality TV, there was poetry: illicit sex and thwarted desire, queer romance and crossdressing, witchcraft, suicide, and bloody murder; Renaissance poets saw it all. Celebrate International Poetry Day with the verse of Spenser, Wyatt, Marlowe, and Shakespeare as you’ve never quite heard it before.

Mistress Hilary Norris presides over a motley but talented troupe of actors, dancers, and musicians.

Also in the 2012 Fringe Festival, featuring medieval musicians and a poetic narrative in blank verse:
The Fire of Life: A Journey to the Underworld and Back

FireBugs present a spectacular theatre production using fire, dance and music in a show for all ages. The show explores the birth, theft and epic recapturing of the Fire of Life. Come with us on a quest to the Underworld to return the flame to its rightful place.

Thursday 22 March, 8.00pm
Friday 23 March, 8.00pm
Saturday 24 March, 8.00pm
Chingford Park, North Rd, NEV
$10/$5

Dunedin Medieval and Renaissance Society
Office 3, Lower Ground Floor, Carnegie Centre, 110 Moray Place
Email: ignatius@dunedinblog.co.nz
Phone: 021 453 191

Pearls of Baroque

Our Beauty of Baroque concert on March 30 includes some of the most sublime pearls from an era rich in choral glory.

Baroque music was written from about 1600 to approximately 1750, and coincided with a great growth of wealth and trade in Europe. The growth of trade led to an unprecedented sharing of ideas in science and the arts. As a result, music flourished, particularly in the great cathedrals and with a new wealthy audience of traders and tradesmen.

This era saw the birth of the industrial revolution and the chaotic growth of city states. Perhaps in reaction to the grime, ugliness and poverty of life in the burgeoning cities, the art and music of the Baroque era is of exaggerated beauty compared with the stark beauty of early Renaissance music.

The term Baroque is thought to have originated from a Portuguese word meaning an irregular shaped pearl. The new music forms were certainly radically different from earlier forms – with so much more artifice and decoration, each phrase perfumed with ornate turns and curlicues.

The term Baroque initially implied strangeness and extravagance in art. It was only applied to music of that era in the 20th century.

Opera and the orchestra were both creations of the era as were many musical forms which shaped all the European music which followed – particularly polyphonic (many voiced) forms such as the fugue and canon. Baroque music was considered as much an intellectual challenge as it was an artistic and spiritual feat.

Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243), written in 1733, is an intellectual masterpiece, for sure, but it also a musical gem of breathtaking beauty. Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum (1713) was his first major choral work in English, and his first commission for the English Royal family, which established his career in London. And Charpentier was a prolific French composer of the late 1600s, often associated with the author Moliere, but now less well known outside France than Bach and Handel.

By Scott Blackwell

Larnach Links

To raise funds for the Choir's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2013, a group of Choir members visited Larnach Castle and environs on Sunday 4 March, accompanied by professional guides Jane Edwards and Lyndsey Garden. On the itinerary for the afternoon were:

• Larnach Castle grounds, a ‘Garden of International Significance’ (one of only four in NZ)
• Extensive tour of castle and grounds
• BYO lunch in the historic stables
• Other points of interest on Otago Peninsula linked with William Larnach.

The Choir members reported they had a most enjoyable time and learned interesting facts about the life and times of William Larnach, who came to Dunedin in 1866 as manager of the Bank of Otago. He soon became quite prosperous, gathering large amounts of money through land speculation, farming investments, and a timber business. Between 1873 and 1887, Larnach constructed a large mansion on the ridge of Otago Peninsula, now known as "Larnach Castle". Larnach himself took up residence in 1874.

The photos in the slide show are by Deborah Dons.


Here is what Deborah had to say about the outing:

On a very cool, sunless Dunedin morning, a good number of keen Choir members, some with family and friends, met to take the Larnach Links Tour with Larnach Castle tour guides, Jane Edwards and Lyndsey Garden. We were taken on an informative, interesting and colourful journey on Dunedin’s attractive peninsula following the life and interests of William Larnach.

The bus drove along the inner peninsula road at sea level stopping at various locations where we learnt of William’s early years in Dunedin, his attraction of the peninsula, and the challenges he endured – or at least his builders and staff – in his choice of building site and construction of the property we know as Larnach Castle. We strolled through the gardens admiring the plantings and spectacular views and toured the castle learning more of Larnach himself, his family, life in the 19th century and earlier times of the settlement of Dunedin; and of the present owners and their love for and development of the property as an historical attraction for locals and tourists alike.

We called into the charming and historic Pukehiki Church before returning to the car park at Anderson’s Bay. Altogether, we were treated to a wonderful day and the sun finally shone on us to end a great tour. I would recommend the day to everyone should the tour be offered again. Thank you Jane and Lyndsey.