Opera might have been banned in Rome in the early 18th century for being too sexy, but that didn’t stop George Frideric Handel from creating music filled with lust, madness and death. Take Apollo e Dafne: started by Handel in Italy in 1709, when the German composer was just beginning his brilliant operatic career, the secular cantata cunningly bypassed the papal decree by using mythological legends as its stars.
Through music, Handel tells the story of the god Apollo. Fresh off a vigorous dragon slaying, and puffed up with hubris, the renowned archer claims that his skills with a bow and arrow are better even than Cupid’s. This arrogance is soon shattered, however, upon spotting the virginal and enchanting Dafne. As a suitor, Apollo employs all manner of charms to win her affections, but she ultimately rejects his advances to preserve her honour. As Apollo becomes more forceful (ie: rapey) the terrified Dafne’s only means to escape is to transform herself into a laurel tree before his very eyes.
For a 40-minute piece, singer Douglas Williams says the experience ends up feeling more like a chamber opera in its dramatic scope and storytelling.
“There’s this whole arc of frustration,” the bass-baritone explains, “and [Apollo] ends with the most plaintive aria of despair at the end, where he has nothing to hold but these laurel leaves. So I think the piece has this wonderful overall shape to it and this incredible storytelling and development of character for a piece that’s only 40 minutes long, with two characters.”
Williams, a 34-year-old, Grammy-winning soloist with a four-century repertoire, will be in Vancouver this weekend to perform as Apollo in Early Music Vancouver’s production of the exuberant piece. The Berlin-based, Connecticut-born artist is known for his appearances in two landmark new operas: Acis and Galatea with Mark Morris for Lincoln Center and Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Sasha Waltz at the Dutch National Opera, and is back across the pond to appear in a series of engagements from San Francisco to Chicago.
Fending off his musical overtures in the role of Dafne will be Opera Magazine “star-to-be” Yulia Van Doren, a prize-winning soprano who has been presented as a soloist in virtually all of the North American early music festivals.
Meanwhile, Juno Award-winning Vancouver ensemble director Alexander Weimann will be leading this amorous adventure, accompanied by his Pacific Baroque Orchestra.
For Williams, this will be the third time he has picked up Apollo’s bow, including a stint in a 1950s, Mad Men-esque staging of the tragic lust story, but he says it’s a role he keeps coming back to because of its celebration of the voice.
“I love singing Handel. It’s written very well for the voice so it allows you to sing beautiful long legato lines. And it’s often very exciting and virtuosic music, which is certainly a part of this piece.
“It’s not like 19th-century opera,” he continues, “where you have an orchestra with so many different instruments providing all of these different colours. Here, you have a chamber orchestra […] and so with these lesser forces you have to create all the different colours. There’s a lot of opportunity to make individual choices about what colour of the voice you’re going to use.”
Rounding out the evening, Early Music Vancouver will also present JS Bach’s Orchestral Suite in C Major.
• Early Music Vancouver presents Apollo e Dafne March 18 at 7:30pm at the Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton). Tickets from $17.50; EarlyMusic.bc.ca
