Great Barrington— Normally, you’d have to travel to Boston to hear performances by North America’s premier presenter of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music: the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF). That’s where the organization is based and where it hosts its famous weeklong Festival and Exhibition every two years—hailed by The London Times as “the world’s leading festival of early music.”
But on the 27th and 28th of this month, BEMF brings a fully staged production of Telemann’s intermezzo operas “Pimpinone” and “Ino” to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.
Telemann’s “Pimpinone” and “Ino” are two distinct one-act operas, often paired together as a double bill. Though both are intermezzi in form, they tell separate stories: one comic (“Pimpinone”), the other more dramatic (“Ino”). The cantata “Ino” is drawn from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and is widely regarded as a bridge between the Baroque and Classical eras.
We often think of Georg Philipp Telemann primarily as a composer of church music. His passions — such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Brockes Passion — along with his vast output of church cantatas, were indeed central to his career, which eclipsed that of his friend J.S. Bach during his lifetime. But Telemann was also incredibly versatile, staggeringly prolific and often very funny. “Pimpinone,” inspired by the Italian comic intermezzi, is just one example of his flair for comedy. It follows a classic opera buffa trope: a vain older man tries to dominate a younger woman and ends up outwitted and humiliated. The narcissistic Pimpinone is a model of entitled foolishness; his chambermaid, Vespetta (“little wasp”), is an exemplar of social ambition, stinging him with both her beauty and her barbs.
Starring in “Pimpinone” will be soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah as Vespetta and baritone Christian Immler in the title role. Soprano Amanda Forsythe will star in “Ino.” Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière is a featured dancer in the production. Musical direction comes from Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs with stage direction by Gilbert Blin and Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière.
When BEMF first staged this production in November 2021, the Boston Globe’s A.Z. Madonna wrote, “From the canny cast to the crack chamber ensemble backing the action, the double bill offered a feast for eyes, ears, and mind; a detailed program essay by stage co-director Gilbert Blin neatly placed “Pimpinone” in its 18th-century milieu while contextualizing it for modern audiences.
Hear the Boston Early Music Festival’s productions of Georg Philipp Telemann’s “Pimpinone” and “Ino” at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 27 or at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 28 at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington. Tickets are available here.
