English baritone Roderick Williams, the “most engaging of performers” who “has one hanging on every word” (The Evening Standard), joins Vocal Series artistic director and pianist Julius Drake in an interdisciplinary performance involving animation, acting, Beethoven and Brahms.
Like the rest of the Vocal Series, this concert includes Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, using it as the springboard into a rare performance of Brahms’ Die Schöne Magelone, a song cycle which tells the legend of Count Peter of Provence and his search for Magelone the Fair. Brahms asks for portions of the story to be read between each of his songs; distinguished essayist and lecturer Adam Gopnik will read Roderick Williams’ beautiful English translation of the text, accompanied by evocative animated short films by noted designer and filmmaker Cristina Garcia Martin.