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Renaissance & Baroque

The Renaissance and Baroque Society celebrated Halloween early on Saturday at Synod Hall in Oakland, presenting the ensemble Artek performing a program titled "Graveyard Music." The evening included ghoulish decorations, costumed staff and patrons and 20 pieces of 16th- and 17th-century music on themes of death and despair.

Led from the harpsichord by founder Gwendolyn Toth, Artek comprises Jessica Tranzillo, soprano, Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano, guitarist Paul Shipper, who also sang bass, Lisa Terry on viola da gamba, lutenist and tenor vocalist Grant Herreid, harpist Christa Patton and Daniel Swenberg on theorbo.

The program was a multimedia presentation with slides of graveyard scenes and original poetry written by Shipper and read by him and Herreid between the tunes. Shipper led an upbeat rendering of "Here Lies a Woman," an anonymous, three-voice round that included Hollinshead and Herreid, but was careless with diction in Alfonso Ferrabosco's "Hermit Poor."

Hollinshead was stylish in "Flow My Tears" by John Dowland and properly impassioned in Tarquinio Merula's "Canzonetta Spirituale sopra la Nanna," her personal best of the evening. Tranzillo was a bit over the top in "My Fatal Hour" but nicely refined in "Evening Hymn," both by Henry Purcell, and sang a splendid tour de force in Giacomo Carissimi's "Lamento di Maria Stuarda."

Terry was at her most expressive in Antonio Bertali's instrumental "Ciaccona," which was appropriately preceded by a pun-filled poem about the ground bass. Patton and Herreid blended seamlessly in "Midnight," an exquisite duet by Dowland, and Toth and Swenberg supplied a solid foundation throughout the concert.

The most unusual piece on the program was "O Death, Rock Me Asleep," a tune attributed to Anne Boleyn. Artek performed it well, but it was below the caliber of the rest of the music.

R&B promoted the show as having "a dash of macabre humor," which was supplied by pieces at the ends of each half: Giovanni Felice Sances' "Tirsi morir volea," a duet involving two young lovers who long for death, and the anonymous "Passacalli della Vita," in which Artek humorously interjected some well-known excerpts from 19th-century operas. The idea of the gallows humor was a good one, but not enough to balance all the gloom and doom.

-- Eric Haines is a freelance writer.

Andrea Marcovicci

The crowd assembled to support the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall capital campaign for renovation of the century-old building in Carnegie knew it was in for a treat from the moment Andrea Marcovicci stepped onto the stage.

Wearing a black evening ensemble and an ostrich-sized feather boa, the slender, elegant Marcovicci was captivating in her cabaret performance of Cole Porter's life and music.

Neither a classic belter nor a lyric soprano, the singer, who also has had a successful career as a television and movie actor, covered two dozen Porter songs as if reading the composer's personal correspondence to each member of the audience.

Her interpretations of classics like "Always True to You in My Fashion" and "You Do Something to Me" had the feel of an old-fashioned parlor conversation with a gracious host who never fails to look her guest straight in the eye.

Marcovicci proved to be just as entertainingly smart and witty between musical numbers when she talked about Porter's life and career as if sitting around the table with 300 of her closest friends and dishing out the juiciest gossip they had heard in some time. The interludes, geared to help the uninitiated understand the driving force behind Porter's great American standards, enhanced the enjoyment of each song.

Pianist Sheldon Markham's virtuosity complemented each vocal innuendo issued by the singer. The atmosphere created by the Carnegie deserves a special nod; the performance was framed in dozens of red and pink roses and followed by a patron reception in the beautifully renovated reception area above the music hall.

-- A.J. Caliendo is a freelance writer.