UMS in the Classroom: Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra and Chorus

By UMS

Interested in using a UMS performance in your university classroom? For each performance on the season, we provide suggested curricular connections, links to contextual material online, citations for scholarly material, and prompts for classroom discussion. For additional resources and individualized curricular support, please contact Shannon Fitzsimons Moen, UMS Campus Engagement Specialist, at skfitz@umich.edu or (734) 764-3903.

UMS is also committed to making our performances an affordable part of the academic experience. Our Classroom Ticket Program provides $15 tickets to students and faculty for performances that are a course requirement. Please email umsclasstickets@umich.edu to set up a group order.

Connect:

This performance may connect meaningfully with courses in the following schools and disciplines:

Classical Studies
Comparative Literature
Germanic Languages and Literatures
History
Conducting
Early Music
Music Education
Musicology
Organ
Strings
Voice
Winds & Percussion

Explore:

Hear Apollo’s Fire director Jeannette Sorrell share the excitement, passion, and adventurous spirit of Baroque music as the group celebrates 25 years of music making.
Read about the story of L’Orfeo and listen to excerpts of La Scala’s production on NPR.
Learn how L’Orfeo and other Baroque operas were staged in Evan Baker’s From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging (University of Chicago Press, 2013).

Reflect:

Most productions of Monteverdi’s opera end with the sun god Apollo coming down from the heavens to reunite Orpheus with his lost wife, Euridice. Apollo’s Fire, however, will be performing a reconstruction of the lost “bacchanale” ending, in which Orpheus meets his demise at the hands of the female followers of Bacchus. Why do you think Monteverdi removed the bacchanale ending from the premiere, instead favoring the Apollo ending? How does the tone of the ending affect your overall experience of the opera?
Apollo’s Fire’s mission is to present Baroque music as it was originally intended–alive and full of emotional impact. What aspects of their performance did you find striking? How did the performers communicate with the audience? With each other? Did their performance change your perceptions about the art form? In what ways?