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		<title>Allegri’s real Miserere revealed!</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2016 18:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>2016 will see the publication of the new book of our director, Graham O’Reilly, about the famous Miserere by Gregorio Allegri. Including two new editions, you will be finally be able to begin to understand what it sounded like when sung in the Sistine Chapel – in brief, what all the fuss was about! The version normally heard today was&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/allegri-real-miserere-revealed/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/allegri-real-miserere-revealed/">Allegri’s real Miserere revealed!</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Image-actu-miserere1.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-434 alignleft" alt="Image actu miserere" src="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Image-actu-miserere1-300x209.jpg" width="377" height="262" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">2016 will see the publication of the new book of our director, Graham O’Reilly, about the famous <i>Miserere</i> by Gregorio Allegri. Including two new editions, you will be finally be able to begin to understand what it sounded like when sung in the Sistine Chapel – in brief, what all the fuss was about!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The version normally heard today was never heard as it stands in the Chapel, but is rather the creation of a 19<sup>th</sup> century English musicologist, who was misled by the different strands of evidence. This new book, the fruit of 15 years of research, guides the reader through the little-known history of this mythical piece, and includes two new editions. And, yes, they both contain the famous high C’s!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It’s a fascinating story, full of unexpected events, of not only good but also bad faith,an  invasion and a scandal, but also exceptional generosity and above all, much virtuosity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The new editions are based on to 19<sup>th</sup> century manuscripts, one from around 1825 and the other from 1892, written down by the last real director of the college of Papal Singers who performed in the Sistine Chapel. It’s main function is to explain, in minute detail, how it should be sung, and its advice can be heard on the Ensemble’s recording of 2000  on the Naive/Ambronay label, a recording now accorded almost mythic status.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And you can perform it with your own choir! Buying the book gives you the right to purchase, at very favourable rates, as many copies as you need of the editions published there.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/">Discover all our articles</a></p>
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		<title>Concert « Les Voix de Cristal », June 20, 2015 at Port-Royal des Champs</title>
		<link>http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/concert-les-voix-de-cristal-june-20-2015-port-royal-des-champs/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=concert-les-voix-de-cristal-june-20-2015-port-royal-des-champs</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2015 17:53:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>Cristal voices : Renaissance polyphony updated   Saturday, June 19, 2015 at 8:30pm Site des Granges / Grange à blés Musée de Port-Royal des Champs Route des Granges 78114 Magny-les-Hameaux The first strand The Portuguese composer Diogo Dias Melgás was a bit of a throwback. Born in 1638 in the little Alentejan town of Cuba, at the age of eight he&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/concert-les-voix-de-cristal-june-20-2015-port-royal-des-champs/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/concert-les-voix-de-cristal-june-20-2015-port-royal-des-champs/">Concert « Les Voix de Cristal », June 20, 2015 at Port-Royal des Champs</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">
<h2 align="center">Cristal voices : Renaissance polyphony updated</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong> </strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">Saturday, June 19, 2015 at 8:30pm</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">Site des Granges / Grange à blés</span><br />
<span style="color: #000000;"> Musée de Port-Royal des Champs</span><br />
<span style="color: #000000;"> Route des Granges</span><br />
<span style="color: #000000;"> 78114 Magny-les-Hameaux</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><b>The first strand</b></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">The Portuguese composer Diogo Dias Melgás was a bit of a throwback. Born in 1638 in the little Alentejan town of Cuba, at the age of eight he made the short 60km trip north to the great Cathedral city of Evora, to become a choirboy in the <i>Colégio da Claustra</i>. The musical foundation there was one of Portugal’s oldest and most distinguished. It had already produced the great composer Manuel Cardoso, as well as João Lourenço Rebelo, who first brought the spirit of the Baroque to Portugal, and was the favourite composer of the music-loving king, João IV. Before long Melgás became Rebelo’s pupil. He spent the rest of his life at Evora, becoming <i>mestre de capela</i> there in 1678.  When he died in 1700, blind and penniless, he was revered by all for his simplicity and modesty.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">The music he wrote there was highly prized. Copies were made for Lisbon Cathedral, where the scribes sometimes could hardly believe the harmonic daring of Melgas’s writing. Because if in general composers of the Iberian peninsula were well behind the musical currents of Italy, the real spirit of the baroque – its fantastical and overwrought imagination – found an echo in the local brand of religion. Melgas’s music, on the page so simple, elegant and well-written is at the same time communicative and full of subtle fantasy. Four singers of the Ensemble William Byrd sing them, more or less, straight.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><b>The second strand</b></span></p>
<p>François and Bernard Baschet started their research into sound in 1952. François was the sculptor, Bernard the engineer. Among their early instruments were an inflatable guitar and an aluminium piano. They soon found themselves in the vanguard of “sound sculpture”. They divided their work into two types: <i>sculptures sonores</i> and<i> structures sonores. </i>The first are primarily <i>sculptures. </i>Made for museums, art galleries and architectural projects, their appearance is more important than the sounds they can make. Among the most notable, musical fountains for the Mexico Olympics of 1968 and the National Gallery in Berlin (1974), and the Belfry at Cergy-Pontoise. On the contrary, the <i>structures sonores</i> are musical instruments made for musicians, and their <i>raison d’être</i> is the sound they make, which is more important than their appearance, although that aspect is hardly neglected. The Baschet brothers preferred to create instruments which would allow interpreters to express themselves, resisting the enthusiasm of the 60’s and 70’s for electronic music.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;">Visually striking, the s</span><span style="color: #993300;"><i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1427621449574_98582">tructures sonores</i> <span style="color: #000000;">are crafted out of steel and aluminium, and amplified by large curved conical sheets of metal. Foremost among them is the</span> <i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1427621449574_98606"><span style="color: #000000;">Cristal Baschet</span>, </i><span style="color: #000000;">with a keyboard of five octaves. It is played by rubbing moistened fingers along the glass tubes, and the sound produced is amplified by fibreglass cones in the shape of flames.</span> <span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1427621449574_98610"><span style="color: #000000;">The sound it makes is sometimes like that if the glass harmonica (which was</span> </span> <span style="color: #000000;">banned in the 19<sup id="yui_3_16_0_1_1427621449574_98617">th</sup> century because it sent its players mad and prevented the crops from growing), the Ondes m</span></span><span style="color: #000000;">artinet or the Theremin. But it is much more adaptable and polyvalent than these, with a wide variety of sounds and phrasings possible. Michel Deneuve has been playing it for nearly forty years now. Although he has composed for it, most of his concerts consist of improvisation, constantly looking for new ways to invade modern music-making with its unique sound-world.</span></p>
<p><b>The third strand</b><b></b></p>
<h3>Between the sobriety of 17th century vocal motets and an extraordinary instrument as modern as tomorrow the link is made by the keyboards of Yannick Varlet. There is a spinetta, based on a model found in Florence around 1570. Its spiky top notes complement a rich and sonorous bass register. There is an organetto – a small hand-held organ popular in medieval and renaissance times; also a small chamber organ useful for the purity of its basses and its fluty high register.  Bringing it all together are his improvisations at the piano – jazzy, dreamy, violent – all the colours are there. Yannick’s background in early music means that his creations jump off from exactly where Melgas’s gorgeous little motets express themselves and search out the extraordinary colours Michel is creating on the cristal.</h3>
<h3></h3>
<p><strong>The programme</strong></p>
<p>Diogo Dias Melgas (1638-1700) : Salve Regina, Memento homo, In jejunio et fletu, Adjuva nos Deus, In monte Oliveti …</p>
<p>Felipe da Madre de Deus (v.1630-v.1690) : Salve Regina</p>
<p>Improvisations by Michel Deneuve, acknowledged virtuoso of the cristal baschet, and Yannick Varlet at different keyboards.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><b>Art is not just a distraction, nor is it just a market-place. It is also the expression of our perception of the world through the senses, and a manifestation of the inner resonances of man. </b></em><em>(</em>Bernard Baschet)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The_cristal_baschet.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1844" alt="The_cristal_baschet" src="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The_cristal_baschet.jpg" width="1024" height="768" /></a></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: #000000;"><strong><strong>Practical information:</strong> </strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: #000000;">Full price : 20 €</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: #000000;">Members of the Association pour le rayonnement de Port-Royal : 15 €</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: #000000;">Students: 10 €</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: #000000;">Free for children under 12 years old</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left"><span style="color: #000000;">Bookings: – <a href="http://www.assoaprc.org" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000000;">on the website of the association</span></a></span><br />
<span style="color: #000000;"> – by email <a href="mailto:assoaprc@gmail.com"><span style="color: #000000;">assoaprc@gmail.com</span></a></span><br />
<span style="color: #000000;"> – by phone on 06.13.08.34.08</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="left">
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		<title>What kind of an “opera” is Dido and Aeneas? Chapter 5</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2014 22:40:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>As we saw in my previous chapter, when Dido and Aeneas was given at Priest’s school in 1689, it was called an opera, as Blow’s Venus and Adonis had also been when performed at Chelsea five years earlier. But the original title of masque (in English, mask) given to Blow’s work is more apposite by the definitions of the time.&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/kind-opera-dido-aeneas-chapter-5/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/kind-opera-dido-aeneas-chapter-5/">What kind of an “opera” is Dido and Aeneas? Chapter 5</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">As we saw in my previous chapter, when<i> Dido and Aeneas</i> was given at Priest’s school in 1689, it was called an opera, as Blow’s <i>Venus and Adonis</i> had also been when performed at Chelsea five years earlier. But the original title of <i>masque</i> (in English, mask) given to Blow’s work is more apposite by the definitions of the time. A mask<i> </i>was a court entertainment entirely set to music, with a prologue directed at the monarch, much dancing, some scenes of grotesquery (the “anti-mask”) and preferably some “noble” participation. <i>Venus and Adonis</i> conforms to this definition, the “noble participation” coming in the person of Mary Davies, one of Charles’s many theatrical mistresses, who sang Venus (and may have organised the whole thing), with their natural daughter, then 10 years old and known as Lady Mary Tudor, singing the role of Cupid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If <i>Venus</i> is labelled a mask, so should <i>Dido</i> be – arguably with even more justification, as the “antimask” element (the witches) is much more developed, and the Prologue (for which no music has survived) is much closer to the conventional panegyric of the genre. There may even have been “noble” participation, as the roles of the two masks are identical in vocal characteristics – Venus a dramatic soprano like Dido, Adonis a low tenor as is Aeneas, and Cupid a kind of <i>soubrette</i>, as is Belinda. So in its casting too, <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> may have been inspired by <i>Venus and Adonis.</i> Perhaps <i>Dido</i> was a sequel to <i>Venus,</i> organised also by Mary Davies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Neither of them, for 17<sup>th</sup> century England, are operas. For one thing, they are much too short &#8211; no doubt the reason that neither was ever heard by itself on the public stage (perhaps when they were done as school shows, the modesty of the circumstances permitted the use of the grand term “opera”). And they were through-composed. English opera of the time, as Dryden and others made clear, involved spoken dialogue, in the manner of <i>The Magic Flute</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> was at least heard in the public playhouse. In 1700, the Actor’s Theatre Company, which had split from the formerly United Company and were falling on hard times, were desperately looking for attractive music to counteract successful revivals in the other house of Purcell’s stage works, to the scores of which they no longer had access. <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> being far too short for an entire evening’s entertainment, the playwright Charles Gildon decided to include it as a series of interludes between the acts of his heavily rewritten version of Shakespeare’s <i>Measure for Measure</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Comic or musical interludes in a serious play were hardly a new idea, and had been much in vogue in London recently. Pretexts were found to introduce the musical moments (usually the entertainment or repose of one the characters) but the success of the whole concept depended on choosing interludes which reinforced the plotline of the play and gave insight into the characters. In the case of <i>Dido</i>, the “entertainments” are all given for the villain Angelo, who seeks to deflower the virtuous Isabella. After the Hunting scene is interrupted by the storm, Angelo compares it to the opportunity he has to possess Isabella: <i>“And when, my Dido, I’ve possessed thy charms, I then will throw thee from my glutted arms, And think no more on all thy soothing Harms.”</i> Later, Dido’s death is followed by a scene in which Isabella refuses to yield, even in exchange for her brother’s life. It seems very clear that in 1700 Dido, like Isabella, was considered virtuous, and Aeneas, like Angelo, a scoundrel and a cad, a reading that has inspired our own take on the story.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Thus transmogrified, <i>Measure for Measure</i> was successful, and revived in later years. That Purcell’s music for <i>Dido</i> was a big factor in its success is borne out by its use as interludes in other plays in 1704 and more revivals in 1706. This is very probably the moment that it was shorn of the music that it now missing – the whole of the Prologue (which had been transformed into a final celebration in 1700 and was afterwards replaced by “Scotch dances”) and, perhaps by mistake, the chorus after Aeneas’s soliloquy at the end of Act 2.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The only musical sources for <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> date from the second half of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, and seem to preserve its state in 1704, four removes from its creation at the court of Charles II. Given that, it is a miracle that we have as much as we do, although it is a shame to have lost the Prologue, which we have not tried to replace. Purcell’s mastery of setting English is so complete that his music is inextricably tied to its text, making it very difficult to adapt. We have however found music, largely from his early works, for the missing chorus (which I have transformed into a duet) and for several essential dances.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Dido and Aeneas</i> has a way of being all things to all men. Our production tries something new in terms of characterisation, but insists on the old for the musical choices, and even the pronunciation. Enjoy !</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" align="right"><b>G O’R</b></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/the-when-and-why-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-4/" target="_blank">Read Chapter 4 : The When and Why of Dido and Aeneas</a></p>
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		<title>The when and why of &#8220;Dido &amp; Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 4</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:57:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>“AN OPERA perform’d at Mr Josias Priest’s Boarding-School at Chelsey by Young Gentlewomen. The Words Made by Mr Nat. Tate. The Musick Composed by Mr. Henry Purcell.” is the title of the only libretto we have. In an epilogue written for this school performance the girls are described as “Protestants and English nuns &#8230; unscarr’d by turning times”. This directs&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/the-when-and-why-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-4/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/the-when-and-why-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-4/">The when and why of &#8220;Dido &#038; Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 4</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;"><i>“AN OPERA perform’d at Mr Josias Priest’s Boarding-School at Chelsey by Young Gentlewomen. The Words Made by Mr Nat. Tate. The Musick Composed by Mr. Henry Purcell.”</i> is the title of the only libretto we have.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In an epilogue written for this school performance the girls are described as “Protestants and English nuns &#8230; unscarr’d by turning times”. This directs our thoughts to 1689, just after “The Glorious Revolution” of 1688 had driven out the Catholic king James II and replaced him with his daughter Mary II and her very protestant husband William of Orange. For a long time it was assumed that this must have been <i>Dido</i>’s first performance, despite the incongruity of England’s best composer stirring himself to one of his finest achievements for a girls’ school, even it was run by a well-known figure in the London artistic scene (Priest being Dancing Master both to the Court and to the only Theatre Company then in existence).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The only other piece of English music of this period which much resembles <i>Dido</i> is John Blow’s “Masque for the Entertainment of the King” <i>Venus and Adonis</i>, given before Charles II probably in early 1683. They share themes (tragic love, hunting), structure (a prologue and three acts), much use of declamatory <i>arioso</i>, many dances, and a final tragic air and mourning chorus. Blow had been one of Purcell’s teachers at the Chapel Royal, and had remained a close friend and colleague: the two composers frequently referred to each other’s work, exchanging and emulating melodies, harmonies, textures, forms, subjects and musical breakthroughs. Although nowadays Purcell is by far the better known, the artistic relationship between the former master and his pupil seems to have been one of equals until at least 1690, when Purcell came to his full maturity. Recently, it has been noticed that after <i>Venus and Adonis</i> had been “Perform’d before the King”, it was given “afterwards at Mr Josiah Preist’s school in Chelsey”, in 1684. Could <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> have followed the same path – created for the Court, and revived for the school?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Arguing for this view is the fact that most of the artistic exchanges between Blow and Purcell happened almost immediately – so much so that it is sometimes difficult to know who had inspired the other. It seems unlikely that Purcell should hark back to a work by Blow written six years earlier, during which time both their styles had evolved. And it must be said that the music is hardly adapted to school performance either, with its complex declamatory recitative. Young singers tend to be more comfortable with simple melodies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is no document which can prove that <i>Dido</i> was performed at court. But in 1683, the king ordered the conversion of a room in the White Tower at Windsor Castle – where the court habitually spent the summer &#8211; into a theatre. All the records of court entertainments given there have been lost, which makes it virtually certain that if <i>Dido</i> was given before the king, it must have happened there. The latest possible date is therefore the summer of 1684, as Charles died the following February.  It is striking that <i>Dido</i> contains many echoes of other music Purcell was writing in the early 1680’s. Listeners can judge for themselves in the duo that I have added at the end of Act Two for a text (<i>“Then since our Charmes”</i>) for which no music has survived, adapted from two Court Odes of 1681 and 1682. Its resemblance to the air about the tragic end of Actaeon, heard five minutes earlier, is uncanny.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is also possible that <i>Dido </i>was planned for summer 1685, but frustrated by Charles’ death. That would have resulted in it being definitively put to one side, as it would have been unthinkable to present to his successor, the very Catholic James II, a story in which the hero is duped by a false god represented by witches (who as we have seen in my last chapter were inextricably identified with Catholics in the public mind) into abandoning his Queen and country. On the other hand, after James had gone, it could be revived in the quasi-amateur setting of the school, perhaps to remind the London theatre management of Purcell’s capacity for dramatic music.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The success of the reminder can be seen in the succession of Purcell masterworks written for the theatre over the succeeding years – <i>Dioclesian</i> (1690), <i>King Arthur</i> (1691), and <i>The Fairy Queen</i> (1692) to name just the first three. In the nomenclature of the time, they were called “dramatick operas”, following the description of Dryden: “a poetical tale or Fiction, represented by Vocal and Instrumental Music, adorn’d with Scenes, Machines and Dancing” and with spoken dialogue. <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> cannot be called “an opera” by this definition because it is “through-composed” &#8211; the whole text is set to music.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">So what is it? And why was it never given on the English stage, except as interludes in another play? And why are there bits missing? All the answers will be found in my next, and last, episode.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <b>G O’R</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/heroes-heroines-witches-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-3/" target="_blank">Read Chapter 3 : Heroes, Heroines and Witches</a></p>
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		<title>Heroes, Heroines and Witches &#8211; &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 3</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Mar 2014 19:34:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>Nahum Tate’s libretto for Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas starts bang in the middle of the story, at the moment Dido confronts her own debate between Honour and Love. Should she give in to new love, and betray her murdered husband’s memory, or resist and, effectively, die emotionally? And what will be the consequences for the country of which she is&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/heroes-heroines-witches-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-3/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/heroes-heroines-witches-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-3/">Heroes, Heroines and Witches &#8211; &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 3</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">Nahum Tate’s libretto for Purcell’s <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> starts bang in the middle of the story, at the moment Dido confronts her own debate between Honour and Love. Should she give in to new love, and betray her murdered husband’s memory, or resist and, effectively, die emotionally? And what will be the consequences for the country of which she is Queen in either case? Her first exchange with her “companion”<i> </i>Belinda turns on the fact that she cannot avow to anyone the attraction she feels for this resplendent hero who has turned up, uninvited, in her kingdom. But of course everyone knows her secret already. In fact, in my take on the story, Aeneas has been working behind the scenes to encourage Belinda and the rest of the court to persuade Dido that she can put herself into a win-win situation: she can have the lover she craves, and the kingdom a warrior who will defend it. Once Belinda openly declares “the Trojan guest into your tender thoughts has prest” Dido does not bother to deny it, and instead waxes lyrical about him. It is clearly only a matter of time before they will be an “item”.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Aeneas, however, has his own agenda. His debate between Love and Honour has already been resolved, at least in his own head. A time of delicious dalliance with the most beautiful widow of North Africa, yes; a long term arrangement, no. He has other work to do, and this is just another adventure along the way. The <i>Aeneid</i> still has six books to run.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is where the witches come in. We have seen in my previous episode that in England at least they play an increasingly large part in the story through the 17<sup>th</sup> century. This can partly be explained by the need to have a new kind of <i>Deus ex machina</i> to replace the Roman gods, who featured so much in Virgil. But it must also be related to their extreme popularity on the 17<sup>th</sup> century English stage, especially after the Restoration of Charles II (1660). Shakespeare may have started it, as he did so many other things. The part of the witches in his <i>Macbeth</i> became more important with every revival, no doubt encouraged by the obsession of King James I with them. After the Restoration, <i>Macbeth</i> was revived in 1663, and again in 1673, each time with extra music for the witches. According to Samuel Pepys, Macbeth was “one of the best plays for a stage, and variety of dancing and musique, that ever I saw”. And in Shadwell’s <i>The Lancashire Witches</i> (1681) they take over the whole story, with an overtly political agenda.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the England of Charles II religious quarrels still made political headlines: Anglicans v Puritans (as in the recent Civil War), and Anglicans and Puritans v Catholics, ever since Henry VIII. In 1680, the country was Anglican, but tenuously so: Charles II had recently converted to Catholicism in secret, and his brother James II, who would succeed him, was married to an Italian princess and openly Catholic. On the English stage, witches tended to be identified with Catholics, in the sense that they were seen both as followers of the devil and as false gods. It is thus extraordinary that Purcell’s Aeneas takes his instructions – to leave Carthage – from one. Does he really believe he is hearing Mercury transmitting a message from the gods? Or does he know he is being duped, and chooses to obey because it suits him?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In our take on the story, it is Aeneas himself who has set up the <i>dénouement</i>. While cultivating Dido by day, he has been amusing himself with the local coven (in truth a few local lads and girls letting off steam after a hard day’s work) by night, pretending to be their new Head Wizard. And when the time comes – when he has finally seduced the Queen &#8211; he gets one of them to pretend to order him to leave.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There have been productions in the past when Dido and the “Sorceress” were interpreted by the same artist, on the grounds that the witches express Dido’s “dark side”. This is the first time to my knowledge that the same artist sings both Aeneas and the “Sorceress”. It is not meant to be a definitive reading, but may help to shed light on Aeneas’s motivation, as understood in 17<sup>th</sup> century England. It should also be noted that in every other play with witch scenes, their chief was always a man, and that when <i>Dido and Aeneas </i>was revived on the stage in 1700, the “sorceress” was sung by a baritone.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">What all this may mean for why and when Purcell composed <i>Dido</i> will be revealed in my final instalment next week.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>G O’R</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/nonclasse/dido-in-england-chapter-2/">Read Chapter 2 : Dido in England</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/the-when-and-why-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-4/" target="_blank">Read Chapter 4: The when and why of Dido and Aeneas</a></p>
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		<title>Dido in England &#8211; &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 2</title>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Mar 2014 15:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>In my last piece, I went rapidly through who Dido was, if she existed, and what may or may not have happened in Carthage when Aeneas turned up, if he did. But in the context of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, that hardly matters. What does matter is who Purcell’s audience thought she was. As I mentioned last time, every&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/dido-in-england-chapter-2/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/dido-in-england-chapter-2/">Dido in England &#8211; &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 2</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">In my last piece, I went rapidly through who Dido was, if she existed, and what may or may not have happened in Carthage when Aeneas turned up, if he did. But in the context of Henry Purcell’s <i>Dido and Aeneas</i>, that hardly matters. What does matter is who Purcell’s audience thought she was. As I mentioned last time, every educated male likely to be in the audience for the performance in 1689 at a girls’ school in Chelsea run by Josiah Priest and his wife, or any other performance at around that time, would have known the story. They had struggled with Virgil’s <i>Aeneid</i> through long hours of Latin at school, and even if their Latin continued to struggle, they could fall back on published translations by Robert Stapylton (1634), Sir Richard Fanshawe (1648), Sydney Godolphin and Edmund Waller (1658), Sir Robert Howard (1660) and Sir John Denham (1668). Still to come was John Dryden’s masterpiece, published in 1697 but no doubt already circulating among the classical <i>cognoscenti</i>, among whom was Nahum Tate, author of the libretto Purcell set.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Virgil, however, was not the only source for Dido’s story in 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> century England. Both Petrarch and Boccaccio, as well as many writers of the early Church, had concentrated on other aspects of her story, which tended to show her chaste and virtuous. Aeneas does not figure in their versions. Instead Dido is importuned by King Iarbas, from whom she bought the land for Carthage in a dodgy real-estate deal, and who looks on the expanding city with anxiety and envy. Dido commits suicide rather than yield to him, in memory of the vow of chastity made to her murdered husband Sychaeus. She follows the model of virtuous Lucretia rather than sinful Phaedra.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the last 40 years of 16<sup>th</sup> century England, Dido was often compared to Queen Elizabeth I. The first thing she shared was their name, Eliza, a modification of Elissa. Then there was the fact that she was a female ruler, a novel concept for the time. In regard to a possible marriage, the nobles of Elizabethan England were torn by fears that the Queen would never marry, and thus leave no heir, and fears that she would &#8211; to a subject? a (gasp) Catholic foreigner? Was she Petrarchan Dido, who resisted temptation for the good of the state, or Virgilian Dido, who gave in to her desires, and thus weakened it? Both solutions were in some way unsatisfactory, implicit if the monarch was female. The situation was further complicated by Elizabeth’s supposed family connection with Aeneas, based on the legend that Britain had been founded by Aeneas’s grandson Brutus (of which more below).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In any case, in both art and literature referring to Elizabeth, there are explicit references to Dido, sometimes as a model, sometimes as a warning. Proof that Dido could be all things to all men is provided by the play <i>Dido, Queen of Carthage</i>, by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe, which probably dates from around 1590. In this version, Dido is a tease and Aeneas is a pliant boy who embarrassedly follows the ardent Dido’s erotic lead, and then sheepishly abandons her when so ordered by Mercury. When we realise that this play was given at Court before the Queen, and moreover performed entirely by boys, we start to realise the layers of meaning to which such a text could be subject.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">By Purcell’s day, classical texts were not always taken seriously. Parallel to the study of all the versions listed above were the “travesties”, in which the stories, while closely followed, were vulgarised into doggerel verse, with much ribald “schoolboy” – quasi-pornographic &#8211; humour. They were hugely popular, and one of the most often reprinted was Charles Cotton’s take on Dido’s story, first published in 1665, then reprinted in 1667, 1670, 1672, 1678, 1682 &#8230;. (He called them his <i>Scarronides</i>, after Paul Scarron’s roguishly winking <i>Virgile travesti </i>from around 1650). Cotton does not mince his words: Virgil is a liar, for the events could never have happened, Aeneas a faithless coward and Dido guiltless. Cotton also introduces witchcraft into the story as Dido, like Armida, seeks to find spells to prevent Aeneas’s departure.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Which brings us to Purcell’s librettist for <i>Dido and Aeneas</i>, Nahum Tate.  The text set by Purcell was not Tate’s first version, as in 1678 he published a play called <i>Brutus of Alba; or, The Enchanted Lovers</i>. In it the story of Dido and Aeneas is transferred to Syracuse, with Dido as its Queen and Aeneas transmogrified into his grandson Brutus, whose mission is to found the Kingdom of Britain – a piece of English historical invention dating from around the 12<sup>th</sup> century. The play is notable for the extensive role given to the witches, following the fashion of the times. And Tate makes a considerable effort to share the blame for the ultimate tragedy between the two protagonists. The English Restoration period loved nothing better than a debate between Love and Honour.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Of which, more in my next.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>G O’R</b></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/nonclasse/heroes-heroines-witches-dido-aeneas-purcell-chapter-3/">Read Chapter 3 : Heros, Heroines and Witches</a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a title="Chapter 1 : Who was Dido ?" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/who-was-dido-chapter-1/">Read Chapter 1 : Who was Dido ?</a></p>
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		<title>Who was Dido ? &#8211; &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 1</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Mar 2014 17:40:51 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>In less than a month, come and enjoy our concert version with gestures of &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell. Come and join us on our Facebook events: At the Dôme de Pontoise, April 6th At the Temple du Foyer de l&#8217;Ame in Paris, April 12th  To make you wait a little, here is an article written by our Artistic Director Graham O&#8217;Reilly on the&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/who-was-dido-chapter-1/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/uncategorized-en/who-was-dido-chapter-1/">Who was Dido ? &#8211; &#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221; by Purcell &#8211; Chapter 1</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">In less than a month, come and enjoy our concert version with gestures of <em>&#8220;Dido and Aeneas&#8221;</em> by Purcell.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Come and join us on our Facebook events:<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/707988635887889/" target="_blank">At the Dôme de Pontoise, April 6th<br />
</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1447358238829736/" target="_blank">At the Temple du Foyer de l&#8217;Ame in Paris, April 12th </a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To make you wait a little, here is an article written by our Artistic Director Graham O&#8217;Reilly on the origines of Dido.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who was Dido?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the classical period, the Mediterranean seems to have been overrun with wronged women.  Arianna was deserted by Theseus and Medea by Jason, while Phaedra, sister of Arianna and wife of Theseus, was ruined by her attraction to his son Hippolytus. Many stories grew up around the Trojan wars : Circe, Iphigenia, Electra, Cassandra and of course Helen all suffered as a result of it. Most of them are descended in some way from the gods, and many have magical powers, apart from their obvious ones of being female. The Romans added stories of their own wronged women (Lucretia raped by Tarquinius) and so, later, did Christian storytellers, notably Armida’s desertion by Rinaldo and the sacrifice by Jephte of his daughter to ensure success in battle, an updating of Iphigenia’s sacrifice by Agamemnon before sailing to Troy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Dido, seduced and abandoned by an escapee from Troy, fits easily into this sisterhood, to the extent that confusion is both possible and widespread. As usual, the gods are implicated, both by family relations (Aeneas is said to be the son of the goddess of love Venus) and as instigators of the action. The “facts”, if they may be called such, are set out in Virgil’s <i>Aeneid</i>, written at the order of the first Roman Emperor Augustus in around 30 BC. In Book I Virgil recounts Dido’s origins. Her real name is Elissa and she is a Phoenician, sister of the King of Tyre, Pygmalion, who murdered her husband Sychaeus for his alleged treasure. Elissa escapes and after many wanderings arrives in present-day Tunis, where she founds Carthage. It is the locals who give her the name of Dido, which may have meant “the Wanderer” in their native tongue.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Aeneas is another wanderer, and when a storm (provoked by Dido’s protector Juno, wife of head god Jupiter) brings him to the shores of Carthage, Dido receives him and his men with generosity. She listens with rapt attention to his account of the sack of Troy, which occupies Books II and III of the <i>Aeneid</i>, and by Book IV, she has fallen for him and allows herself to be seduced. Jupiter hears of this, and sends Mercury, his usual envoy, to remind Aeneas of his real function in life &#8211; “bound by Fate” to found a new Troy in Rome. Aeneas leaves and Dido, full of guilt for having broken her vow of chastity to her former husband, and full of anger for having been made a fool of, kills herself.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Historically, the whole tale is impossible, as the dates of the fall of Troy and the founding of Carthage do not coincide. They may be out by anything between 60 and 600 years, depending on which authority you choose to trust. What then was Virgil’s – and Augustus’s &#8211; point? The two key words are, firstly, Carthage, and secondly, Cleopatra.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">-          Rome had defeated and entirely destroyed Carthage, her traditional enemy, in 146 BC, and at the time of the <i>Aeneid</i> (30 – 20 BC) was busy refounding it as a colony. Augustus was willing to burnish its reputation a little, to overcome the curse associated with it and encourage settlement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">-          Cleopatra had seduced another Roman hero, Marc Antony, and caused him to become an enemy of Rome. Augustus had finally defeated him at Actium in 31 BC and he commanded the <i>Aeneid </i>immediately. Dido’s tale is thus a warning against North African temptresses who might distract Roman heroes from their duty. Aeneas had resisted, Marc Antony had not.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One wonders whether Augustus was entirely happy with the result, which turned Dido into a heroine and Aeneas something of a coward. Book IV remained popular throughout the succeeding centuries even when the rest of it languished in semi-oblivion. By Purcell’s time, in late 17th century London, every normally educated male in the audience would have known it from their schooldays, and even the female part of the audience, carefully denied a classical education, could have availed themselves of five translations of Book IV made within the last 50 years, with Dryden’s to come before the end of the century.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">What they made of it, and what Purcell and his librettist Nahum Tate may have thought, will be the subject of my epistle next week.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>G O’R</b></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><b><br />
</b><a title="Chapter 2 : Dido in England" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/dido-in-england-chapter-2/">Read Chapter 2 : Dido in England</a></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></p>
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		<title>Dido and Aeneas as you’ve never heard it!</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:19:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>The Ensemble William Byrd will perform its own version of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas next April, in a concert version with gesture. Interpreting Dido is always more complicated than it appears. The only useful score dates from some 60 years after its composition, which was no doubt for the royal court of Charles II. It was subsequently adapted more&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/dido-and-aeneas-as-youve-never-heard-it/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/dido-and-aeneas-as-youve-never-heard-it/">Dido and Aeneas as you’ve never heard it!</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/didomosaic3.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-405 alignleft" alt="didomosaic3" src="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/didomosaic3-300x194.jpg" width="273" height="177" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Ensemble William Byrd will perform its own version of Henry Purcell’s <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> next April, in a concert version with gesture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Interpreting <i>Dido</i> is always more complicated than it appears. The only useful score dates from some 60 years after its composition, which was no doubt for the royal court of Charles II. It was subsequently adapted more than once, firstly – and famously &#8211;  for a girls’ school, and then transformed into interludes to be heard between the acts of Shakespeare’s <i>Measure for Measure. </i>Of the original libretto and score, nothing remains, and it is certain that some sections have disappeared.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Our new production takes into account the most recent research, and emphasizes the importance of the witches: their rôle as the <i>deus ex machina</i> of the plot reflects the obsession of 17th century England in general, and of the royal court in particular, with their actions and influence. We have also completed certain parts of the score for which the words survive without music, and added some dances where appropriate, all with Purcell’ own music.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Our performances will be given by:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Brigitte Vinson (Dido)<br />
Ryland Angel (Aeneas/ Sorceress)<br />
Amelia Berridge (Belinda)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With the instrumentalists of the Ensemble William Byrd<br />
and the Ensemble Vocal de Pontoise</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Direction : Graham O&#8217;Reilly</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Sunday , 6th April 2014 at 18h<br />
in The Dôme, Place de l&#8217;Hôtel de Ville, 95500, Pontoise</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Saturday 12 avril 2014 at 20h30<br />
in the Temple du Foyer de l&#8217;Âme, 7 rue du Pasteur Wagner, 75011, Paris</p>
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		<title>Our new site goes online !</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Oct 2013 20:16:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>adminewb</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[<p>The Ensemble William Byrd is pleased to present you with its new “face” for a new year. 23 years after its birth, here is our new website! Nicer to look at. Easier to read and more elegant, your visit will be accompanied by our own “blue byrd”, keeping an eye on you from the edge of each page. Easier to use.&#160;<a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/our-new-site-goes-online/" class="read-more">Continue Reading</a></p><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/latest-news/our-new-site-goes-online/">Our new site goes online !</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/">Ensemble William Byrd - Graham O&#039;Reilly</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ArbreOiseauNoirFiligrane.gif"><img class="size-full wp-image-1470 alignleft" alt="ArbreOiseauNoirFiligrane" src="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ArbreOiseauNoirFiligrane.gif" width="261" height="301" /></a>The Ensemble William Byrd is pleased to present you with its new “face” for a new year.<br />
23 years after its birth, here is our new website!</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Nicer to look at.</strong> Easier to read and more elegant, your visit will be accompanied by our own “blue byrd”, keeping an eye on you from the edge of each page.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Easier to use.</strong> Our new site is full of useful and carefully organised information about our programmes, our past successes, and our educational initiatives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>More to find.</strong> Our new discography page is full of musical extracts to listen to. In fact, there are no less than 81 musical extracts on the site! That’s because we’re proud of them. And you can also listen to extracts from concerts and see us at work in videos in the Media section.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>More direct.</strong> You can easily keep up with all our news in the News section, and follow us on our Facebook page.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Coming rendezvous :</strong></p>
<p>- 2 concerts of <i>Dido and Aeneas</i> in April 2014 in Pontoise and Paris<br />
- “Les Voix de Cristal” in Avallon (89) on June 15th 2014</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If you have comments, suggestions, or feedback, don’t hesitate to get in touch through our <a href="http://www.ensemblewilliambyrd.com/en/contacts/">contact page</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Team</p>
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