After the excitement of our trip to Spain in the fall died down, Don Quixote took a nap while we prepared for the immediate season. Sleep, after all, is “a cloak to cover over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion and, finally universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level.” (Volume 2, Chapter 68)
But the dreaming knight was always in the background, as we pored over the photos we took in Spain, were interviewed by our intrepid writer Anne Hunter for various feature articles (one of which has already appeared in Philadelphia’s on-line arts and culture magazine, Broad Street Review, another which will headline the fall issue of Early Music America Magazine), and began to work with Grant Herreid on musical selections.
In the meantime, we finalized our plans for the rest of the 2016-17 season, for which Don Quixote will provide the grand opening and entrée to other Spanish explorations. These will include a holiday program of music from the Iberian Peninsula with Dark Horse Consort, a cornetto and sackbut ensemble (directed by Piffaro member Greg Ingles) and soprano Jessica Beebe; a program featuring music written for early 17th century Spanish theater with soprano Julianne Baird and counter-tenor Drew Minter and actors from The Philadelphia Artists Collective; and to top off the season, music for winds from Spanish cathedrals and churches, including selections from the famed Lerma Codex, which we had a chance to see live and in person on our visit to Lerma in the fall. The music in that codex, as you may recall, was written down expressly for the Duke’s wind players at the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Lerma.