Chicago Sinfonietta, joined by Redmoon and Brazilian guest conductor
Lucia Matos, celebrates Día de los Muertos
Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville, November 15
Symphony Center, Chicago, November 17
CHICAGO (October 21, 2014) – The Chicago Sinfonietta captures the duality of grief and joy intrinsic to the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead in its annual Día de los Muertos concert, where the orchestra is joined by Brazil-born, Chicago area-based guest conductor Lucia Matos, making her Sinfonietta podium debut, and Redmoon theater, bringing the music to life through spectacular visual accompaniments. The Chicago Sinfonietta performs Día de los Muertos twice: first, in Naperville at Wentz Concert Hall of North Central College, 171 E. Chicago Avenue, Saturday, November 15 at 8 pm, and then again in downtown Chicago at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Avenue, Monday, November 17 at 7:30 pm.
Throughout the concert, the works alternate in tone between joyous and somber, mirroring the Day of the Dead’s intrinsic dichotomy. The program begins with the “Intermedio” movement of Spanish composer Gerónimo Giménez’s La Boda de Luis Alonso (The Wedding of Luis Alonso), a boisterous and rollicking work originally written in 1897 as a comedic opera about a tumultuous wedding night.
The second work takes the orchestra into darker territory with Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’ Valse triste (Sad waltz), originally composed in 1903 as incidental music for his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt’s play Kuolema (Death) and later revised as a separate concert piece that became one of Sibelius’ most well-known works.
For the third selection, the Sinfonietta performs work by one of Mexico’s greatest living composers, Arturo Rodríguez, in Mosaico Mexicano. Written in 1998 and now one of Rodríguez’s most popular compositions, Mosaico Mexicano is a rhythmically energetic piece that deftly weaves together indigenous styles of Mexican music, including Mariachi, into three distinct movements.
The tortured love story of Manuel de Falla’s ballet suite El Amor Brujo (The Bewitched Love – arranged 1924) highlights the second half of the Día de los Muertos program. The Chicago “spectacle art” specialists of Redmoon – with whom the Sinfonietta collaborated last year – return with their unique brand of visual theater, using dramatic shadow puppetry to portray the ballet’s haunted love story of Candela, a Spanish gypsy woman who dances with the ghost of her dead husband every night until she learns of his unfaithfulness in life.
Another of Mexico’s greatest living composers, Arturo Marquez, culminates the program with Danzón No. 2. One of the most significant Mexican contemporary classical works of the 20th century, Marquez’s Danzón No. 2 (premiered 1994) fuses the vibrant dance music of Cuba with the ballroom sounds of Veracruz, Mexico, creating a seductive and spirited work often referred to as the second national anthem of Mexico.
Tickets
Single tickets for Día de los Muertos range from $46 to $58 for Wentz Concert Hall and from $16 to $99 for Symphony Center, with special $10 pricing available for students at both concerts. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Chicago Sinfonietta at 312-284-1554 or online at www.chicagosinfonietta.org.
About the Artists
Lucia Matos has appeared with orchestras in the U.S., Brazil and Europe, including the Chicago Philharmonic, the Illinois Philharmonic, the National Arts Center Orchestra (Canada), the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Gabrovo Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Campinas Symphony Orchestra (Brazil) and Orchestra da UNICAMP (Brazil). Since 2008, she has been the Director of Orchestra and Opera at Northern Illinois University and since 2009, the Music Director of the Illinois Valley Symphony. Learn more about Lucia Matos at www.luciamatos.net/live.
For over 27 years, the Chicago Sinfonietta has pushed artistic and social boundaries to provide an alternative way of hearing, seeing and thinking about a symphony orchestra. Each concert experience blends inventive new works with classical masterworks, each from a diverse array of voices, to entertain, transform and inspire. For more information please visit www.chicagosinfonietta.org.
Complete Program Information
Día de los Muertos
Saturday, November 15 at 8 pm, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville
Monday, November 17 at 7:30 pm, Symphony Center, Chicago
Chicago Sinfonietta
Lucia Matos, Guest Conductor
Redmoon
Gimenez La Boda de Luis Alonso (Intermedio)
Sibelius Valse triste, op.44
Rodríguez Mosaico Mexicano
De Falla El amor brujo: Ballet Suite
- Introducción y escena (Introduction and Scene)
- En la cueva – La Noche in the Cave (Night-time)
- El Aparecido (The Apparition)
- Danza del terror (Dance of Terror)
- El circulo mágico (The Magic Circle)
VII. A media noche – Los sortilegios (Midnight – Witchcraft)
VIII. Danza Ritual Del Fuego (Ritual Fire Dance)
- Escena (Scene)
- Pantomima (Pantomime)
XII. Danza del juego de amor (Dance of the Game of Love)
XIII. Final – Las Campanes Del Amanecer (Finale – The Bells of Morning)
Márquez Danzón No.2
Tickets: $46–$58 (Wentz Concert Hall); $16–$99 (Symphony Center)
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