The Aston Magna Festival will present a double bill of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” and Scarlatti’s “Humanity and Lucifer” Thursday, June 23 at Brandeis University’s Slosberg Music Center, Friday, June 24 at Hudson Hall, and Saturday June 25 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. All shows are at 7 p.m., preceded by a 6:15 p.m. pre-concert talk from Aston Magna Artistic Director Daniel Stepner.
As a liturgical composer, Alessandro Scarlatti was sufficiently knowledgeable of the handsome Lucifer’s charms to write an oratorio about him: “Humanity and Lucifer.” (Some call it a “dramatic cantata.”) Scarlatti went through sort of an easy-listening phase in his career, and “Humanity and Lucifer” is a product of that period. It is less complicated than much of the work that preceded and followed it.
Scored for two singers, recorder, trumpet, strings, and continuo, the rarely performed “Humanity and Lucifer” features two characters: Humanità, sung in this production by soprano Kristen Watson, and the role of Lucifero, which, contrary to convention, was not scored for a bass singer. Instead, Scarlatti called for a tenor to sing the part of the beguiling devil. Frank Kelley sings the part in this production (and also narrates and stage-directs “The Soldier’s Tale.”)
A sung dialog—what one reviewer called “an exchange of taunts”—between the Devil and Humanity may sound drearier than a Johnny Depp libel trial, but the fact is, Scarlatti simply could not keep himself from writing cheerful music. So, given the subject matter, his arias in this oratorio are more buoyant than you might expect and full of engaging melodies.
The second tale of devilry on this program, based on the Russian folk story “The Runaway Soldier and the Devil,” is a 1918 theatrical work from composer Igor
Stravinsky and librettist C. F. Ramuz. The libretto tells the story of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil in return for unlimited wealth, the climax coming when the soldier regains possession of his violin and engages the devil in combat. The “Danse du diable” delivers all the wit, thrills, and adventure you hope for in a Stravinsky piece, and witnessing this band tackle it is likely to be a white-knuckle experience.
The themes of this highly convoluted fable are all too familiar, but the ending is so surprising that it mustn’t be given here.
Stravinsky scored “The Soldier’s Tale” for a few dancers, seven instruments, and three actors, one of whom—David McFerrin in this production—plays the devil.
Over the last hundred years or so, ”The Soldier’s Tale” has been arranged for all manner of instrument groupings, which is possibly why a dozen-plus Aston Magna players feel they have sufficient license to perform this 20th-century piece on period instruments. And why not? (It’s scary without a conductor, though, because Stravinsky’s time signatures change frequently and erratically.) Mr. Stepner calls the ensemble for this work a “rag tag village band.” We call them early music specialists.
The Scarlatti/Stravinsky performances beginning June 23 are a part of Aston Magna Music Festival’s 49th season, which will offer in-person concerts on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through July 23.
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