By KIRSTEN BOLTON
For ArtSpring
If you are a music, dance or history buff, how rare is the opportunity to experience the music and dance of 15th- and 16th-century Renaissance France and Italy played on stage today using period instruments like those used at court festivities, some of which were organized by Leonardo da Vinci himself?
In partnership with the Early Music Society of the Islands in Victoria and Early Music Vancouver, ArtSpring is pleased to welcome Ensemble Doulce Mémoire from France’s Loire Valley for a very special presentation on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m.
For over 30 years, Ensemble Doulce Mémoire has masterfully represented the spirit of the Renaissance in performances around the world, from Versailles to the Sultan’s Palace in Istanbul with an evolving cast of musicians, actors, dancers and singers. For this tour, the ensemble has partnered with classical and contemporary choreographer, dancer and French literature and musicology scholar Hubert Hazebroucq, who began to specialize in Renaissance and Baroque dances in 1998.
The program — entitled Let’s Dance! — challenges how we generally imagine early dances and music as highly stylized and solemn and instead shows what they were really like, which was spectacular and sumptuous theatre.
The experience is dedicated to sharing the originality, diversity, inventiveness, virtuosity and energy of the many forms of dance during the Renaissance, but it is also a journey back in time with period instrumentation.
Shawms, crumhorns, lutes and recorders combine with bassoons and oboes to capture both regal authority and crisp lively dance steps of the day. In the case of the reconstructed column flute, Doulce Mémoire is the only known ensemble in the world to play this instrument today.
Tickets for the April 10 show are available through ArtSpring.