Renowned vocalists Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry join the Naples Philharmonic for two Masterworks Series performances under the baton of guest conductor Juanjo Mena at Hayes Hall, February 16 and 18.
The program features soprano Fleming and baritone Gilfry singing the characters of American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts’ Georgia O’Keeffe and the Brightness of Light—a song cycle for orchestra using texts from the thousands of letters the two wrote to each other from the time they met until Stieglitz’s death in 1946. The performance includes projected imagery of O’Keeffe’s and Steiglitz’s works, as well as photographs of them and their letters, to bring context to their words.
“I welcomed this challenge of creating a work which would encompass their years both together and apart, from the first cautious exchanges between the two artists, through their impassioned and complicated relationship, to the years long after Stieglitz’ death, when I imagine O’Keeffe writing to him even still,” said Puts in a program note about his approach to writing this piece, which evolved from a song cycle he originally wrote just for soprano with text solely from O’Keeffe’s letters (Letters from Georgia).
Also on the program is Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a collection of one theme and 14 variations, each depicting a character in the composer’s life.
Tickets and additional information are available here. Tickets include same-day admission to The Baker Museum.
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