by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
Ohio Light Opera has five of its six summer shows running at The College of Wooster, The Cleveland Orchestra welcomes conductor Petr Popelka and violinist Veronika Eberle to Blossom, Young violinists begin the semifinal rounds of the Cooper Competition at Oberlin, Piano Cleveland presents The 5 Browns in Playhouse Square, and Kent Blossom Music Festival schedules its annual Young Artist Concert Series.
Check our Concert Listings for details.
WEEKEND ALMANAC:
July is a bit snoozy for anniversaries, but on this date in 1752, German-British composer and conductor John Christopher Pepusch died at the age of 85 in London. One of the founders of what eventually became the Academy of Ancient Music, Pepusch was active in London during the era of Handel.
His interest in earlier music inspired his student William Boyce to publish his Cathedral Music, an anthology of 16th and 17th century works, although Pepusch is probably best known today for his collaboration with John Gay in The Beggar’s Opera. A satire on the high art of Italian opera originally suggested by Jonathan Swift, the show dispensed with recitative in favor of a string of re-texted popular ballads, hymns, and popular tunes.
That concept has been popular with many later producers, directors, and composers. Benjamin Britten arranged and revived the work in 1948, twenty years after Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill had updated it with completely new music in Die Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera). Click here for a 1963 BBC video recording of Britten’s version (subsequent acts are to be found nearby).
