I Fagiolini’s Christmas Dinner
(for Christmas 2010)
A Christmas meal with courses from England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain
Performers: 6 singers
I Fagiolini bring their characteristic elan, style and humour to a beautifully varied meal of Christmas music from the Renaissance. A peal of bells from Swiss clocktower figures, great Renaissance Christmas works by Palestrina and Guerrero and, closer to home, one of William Byrd’s most effervescent and joyous works. A Spanish salad is provided via a staged Christmas drama (literally ensalada) in which the Devil challenges Christ to a joust. After this rich diet of polyphony, an aural sorbet restores the taste buds in a medieval take on the Christmas message from Hildegard of Bingen before a change of taste brings us to more recent times in Poulenc’s wartime winter cantata, Un soir de neige. For dessert a few vocal soufflés and an alternative to the 12 days of Christmas.
Amuse-bouche
Senfl / Praetorius / Schütz
Primo Piatto
Palestrina / Byrd / Guerrero
Sorbet
Hildegard of Bingen: O virga ac diadema
Secondo Piatto
Poulenc – Un Soir de Neige / Warlock – 4 Carols
Salad
Da Flecha – La Justa (‘ensalada’)
Dolce
The 12 days after Christmas
Voted by I Fagiolini’s singers as one of their most pleasurable evenings of the year.
