The 2019 Tucson Desert Song Festival’s second weekend includes the much-anticipated recital with Mexican tenor and Placido Domingo protegé Arturo Chacón-Cruz, the premiere of the world’s first flamenco opera and the return of American-Uruguayan early-music soprano Nell Snaidas.
Snaidas will perform medieval Sephardic monophonic works with the Chatham Baroque early-music trio for the Arizona Early Music Society on Sunday, Jan. 27.
The program draws from Spain and Latin America with songs steeped in the rich melodic textures of vihuela and baroque guitar, bold zarzuela arias and vibrant villancicos. Snaidas calls the period instruments they will play Sunday the “great-great-grandmothers” of the instruments we often associate with our regional mariachi music and they tend to have a more bell-like tone and softer, lighter sound.
“You will recognize it from the mariachi music, but you will hear a very different sound,” she said during a phone call last week from home in New York.
Snaidas curated the program from rarely played repertoire that goes back hundreds of years. The focus is squarely on the purity of voice, drawing from music that has a very human quality to it, she said.
Snaidas, who has made it her mission over her 30-plus-year career to champion the early Spanish and Sephardic repertoire, said listeners will likely connect the dots between the music she performs and their contemporary singer-songwriter music.
“The instruments are more like acoustic folk instruments you would think of today, soft sounds, and like singer-songwriter, where you really hear the words and it’s not crowded by a symphony of 75,” she said. “People often sing Schubert song cycles and all of the classical song repertoire. If they knew this repertoire, they would want to play it. It is just fantastic music and beautiful poetry.”
Also on Sunday’s program: lively dances for string band and percussion. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Sunday at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. Tickets are $25 through azearlymusic.org
Also this weekend:
- One of the most interesting panel discussions of the three-week festival takes place at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road, when song festival director George Hanson and a panel that includes Tucson Symphony Orchestra Music Director José Luis Gomez, UA composition professor Daniel Asia, stage director Daniel Helfgot and Israeli composer and guitarist Adam del Monte try to answer the question: “What is Latin style?” The conversation will explore tango, zarzuela and the Jewish “Landino” experience, supported by performances of Latin song. Admission is $5 and tickets need to be reserved by calling 299-3000.
- Vocalists from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute are exploring “Canciones from Spain and Latin America” in a recital presented by the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. The concert, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, features tenor Stephen Carroll, baritone Edward Cleary, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon and soprano Antonina Chehovska, accompanied by pianist and Ravinia program director Kevin Murphy. Admission is free and the concert will be held at Holsclaw Hall, North Park Avenue and East Speedway on the UA campus.
