Local’s Summer Soiree

Fantasy & Reverie – A Set for Countertenor

1. Henry Purcell – If Music Be the Food of Love

2. Henry Purcell – Music for a While

3. G.F. Handel – Ombra mai fu (Serse)

4. Antonio Vivaldi – Vieni, vieni

5. G.F. Handel – Non lo dirò col labbro (Tolomeo)

6. G.F. Handel – Verdi prati (Alcina)

7. Gerald Finzi – Two Lips (Op. 19b, No. 3)

8. Franz Schubert – Du bist die Ruh (D.776)

9. Robert Wright & George Forrest – Stranger in Paradise (arr. from Prince Igor - Alexander Borodin)

“Visions & Reveries” – A Fantasy Recital for Countertenor
1. Henry Purcell – If Music Be the Food of Love
We begin with music as enchantment itself — Purcell transforms Shakespeare’s words into a tender invocation.

1. Henry Purcell – Music for a While
   If music feeds love, it can also soothe pain. A ground-bass meditation where music lulls the restless heart “for a while.”

2. G.F. Handel – Ombra mai fu (Serse)
   A prayer to the shade of a tree — nature as sanctuary. Handel elevates this simple gratitude into something divine.

3. Antonio Vivaldi – Vieni, vieni
   From stillness to invitation: Vivaldi gives us Italianate brightness — a call to embrace joy and the moment.

4. G.F. Handel – Non lo dirò col labbro (Tolomeo)
   Dreams often hold what lips cannot say — Handel captures the bittersweetness of hidden longing.

5. G.F. Handel – Verdi prati (Alcina)
   We move deeper into reverie: a bewitched landscape, lush yet fading, as Handel reflects on illusions of paradise.

6. Gerald Finzi – Two Lips (Op. 19b, No. 3)
   A playful, whimsical interlude — Finzi’s English pastoralism as a brief awakening from the dream.

7. Franz Schubert – Du bist die Ruh (D.776)
   The heart of the program: a vision of love and peace so pure it feels dreamt — the ultimate fantasy of stillness.

8. Alexander Borodin – Stranger in Paradise (from Prince Igor)
   We end where fantasy meets reality — Borodin’s sweeping melody transports us to an imagined world, leaving us suspended between dream and awakening.