by Daniel Hathaway
Benjamin Bagby is so consummate a raconteur that he could probably tell you a joke in Anglo-Saxon — with the help of a few facial expressions and gestures — and you’d know exactly when to laugh. Presented by Apollo’s Fire, Bagby brought all his storytelling skills into play at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights on Friday evening, November 13 to bring the first third of the Old English epic poem Beowulf vividly to life. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Like many of us, Benjamin Bagby first encountered the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf during junior high school. A few years later, Bagby became fixated with the sound of medieval music. And as he writes on his website, “The Anglo-Saxons would say that this was simply my wyrd (personal destiny).” This weekend, Apollo’s Fire will present three performances of Beowulf performed by singer/storyteller and medieval harpist Benjamin Bagby, beginning on Friday, November 13 at 8:00 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. See our concert listings page for additional times and locations.
“Humankind has always been fascinated with tales of man over monster,” Bagby said during a telephone conversation from his home in Paris. “It’s an archetypical story that still fascinates us today.” The fact that a new Star Wars film is about to be released supports Bagby’s thoughts. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Following a series of sold-out concerts at Tanglewood and in England (London and Aldeburgh) and Italy, Cleveland’s baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire is busy putting the finishing touches on the eight programs they are planning around the area this season. We reached founder and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell to chat about last summer’s experiences and her plans for the season to come.
I began by asking about Apollo’s Fire’s debut at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. “It was really fun,” Sorrell said. “We had no idea that we were going to be sold out at Tanglewood. It was really a personal homecoming because I had studied in the conducting class there back in 1989 and I have such moving memories of that summer working with Leonard Bernstein and Roger Norrington. [Read more…]