Claire Angel Bonner | Home - lost and found

Featuring the work of Napoléon Coste (1805-1883), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856) and Giulio Regondi (1822-1872)

Performance: Thursday 28th September

Jacob’s Ladder 1:30pm FREE (No Booking necessary)
BasementArtsProject 7pm £10

Claire Angel Bonner is an Australian musician currently living in Italy who performs classical guitar works of the 19th Century. Bonner’s programme is based around pieces that touch upon universal themes of life, love, loss and the search for a place to call home.

Political revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini, arrived in London in 1831 after being exiled from Italy for his activism in support of an independent and unified Italy. Here he found many young Italians living in dire circumstances and so began a school for them, funded by a yearly multi-act concert at which Giulio Regondi (1822-1872) performed one of the pieces in this selection, his ‘Fantasia su Don Giovanni’ (Mozart). 

These concerts foreshadow BasementArtsproject’s remit by nearly 200 years regarding the importance of the arts as a part of the fabric of society, and its ability to bring people together.

Tour Dates
Switzerland
Riva San Vitale - private concert, Jun 17
France
Laives - St Martin de Laives Romanesque Church, Jul 7, 8:00 pm
Sornay - Protestant temple, Jul 8, 8:30 pm
Ménetreuil - St Pierre Church, Jul 9, 3pm
Romenay - private concert EHPAD Le Clos Bressan, Jul 10, 3pm
Italy
Varese, private concert, Sep 23, 5pm and 8.30pm
United Kingdom
London - St Olave's, Sep 27, 1pm
Leeds - BasementArtsProject, Sep 28 BOOK HERE
Edinburgh - Edinburgh Society of Musicians, Sep 30, 8:30pm
Australia
Hobart - Battery Point Community Hall, Nov 2, 8pm
Spreyton private concert, Nov 5pm
Adelaide - date and venue TBC
Perth - Callaway Auditorium UWA, Nov 16, 7pm

http://www.claireangelbonner.com

BasementArtsProject 1:30pm Programme

'Home...is where the heart is'
The universal search for love told in melodies from three of Italy's most beloved and romantic opera composers: Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi.

In the 19th century, Italian opera was heard not only in the opera houses but at home and on the street: far from being an elite form of entertainment this was people's music, and it told universal and timeless stories of the quest for love and home.

And the humble 6 string guitar, a simple and relatively new instrument, was the perfect vehicle to reproduce its tunes and tales outside of the opera house, in streets and living rooms alike. Capable of both melody and accompaniment, and an extraordinary range of timbres, it gave guitar composers endless possibilities to write both simple and elaborate fantasies on the most popular operatic music, providing both concert material and sheet music sale revenue.

This short programme presents three fantasies (each approximately 10 minutes long) by the 19th century guitarist and composer Johann Kaspar Mertz. Originally from Bratislava which at that time was the  Hungarian capital, he spent a great part of his life in Vienna and was celebrated in his lifetime as both virtuoso and composer.

Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856)
Fantasy on La sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
Fantasy on L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) 
Fantasy on La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

In 'La sonnambula' (The sleepwalker), Bellini tells the tale of Amina whose sleepwalking almost ruins her upcoming marriage to Elvino, who is overcome with jealousy when Amina sleepwalks into another man's room. Fortunately there is a happy ending when the true cause of her nightly perambulations is understood. 

There is also a happy ending in Donizetti's 'L'elisir d'amore', in which the lovestruck Nemorino finally sums up the courage to declare his love for Adina thanks to medicine from a quack doctor - a good bottle of red wine.

Instead in Verdi's ‘La Traviata’ the two protagonists find home together only to have it stolen away by social prejudice: Violetta leaves her life as a courtesan in Paris to make a home in the country with Alfredo, but intense opposition to their life together comes from his (noble) family. The family forces the two apart, and they are only reunited again before Violetta's death.

BasementArtsProject 7pm Programme
Le départ - Napoléon Coste (1805-1883): a poignant multisection work about the return of French soldiers from the Crimean war
Fantaisie élégiaque - Fernando Sor (1778-1839): dedicated to a student of Sor's who died in childbirth. Sor was also personally familiar with the loss and search for home: when Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 he first fought against the invaders, then, like other Spaniards, worked for the French, attracted by French revolutionary ideals. When the French left, Sor and other so-called afrancesados had to leave Spain also.
Fantasia su La traviata (Verdi)  - Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856): Verdi's famous opera is based on The lady of the Camelias by Dumas junior, and tells the story of Violetta who leaves her life as a courtesan in Paris to make a home in the country with Alfredo, and the intense opposition to their life together that comes from his (noble) family. The family's prejudice forces the two apart, and they are only reunited again before Violetta's death.
Fantasia su Don Giovanni (Mozart) - Giulio Regondi (1822-1872): both Giulio Regondi and Giuseppe Mazzini knew about having to find home in a new place. A child prodigy, Swiss-born Regondi was exploited and then abbandoned in England at the age of 12 by his father. He made London his new home, and later became friends with Giuseppe Mazzini, a leading activist for Italy's unification, who was exiled to London on pain of death. Arriving in London, Mazzini discovered many young Italians in bad circumstances in the city and started a school for them. Run by volunteers, it was funded through an annual multi-act concert, at which Regondi is known to have played this fantasy on a theme of Mozart and taken from a piano work of the same name by his friend the pianist Thalberg.