Leipzig, 1722.  Old Johann Kuhnau, the long-time Music Director of Leipzig, is dead. The Leipzig Town Council finds itself faced with choosing a new Music Director.  One of the candidates is a rather obscure organist named Johann Sebastian Bach.  And who are the Others?

The others – G.P. Telemann, Christoph Graupner and Johann Friedrich Fasch – certainly do not rate the same level of importance today that Bach does.  However, the Leipzig Town Council saw things differently.  Very differently.  The composer whom we think of as one of the greatest luminaries of Western music, J.S. Bach, was considered old-fashioned, provincial, and in the words of the Leipzig Town Council - mediocre.  By contrast, Telemann was revered by 18th-century Germans as the greatest baroque composer of Northern Europe, perhaps of all Europe. Likewise, Graupner and Fasch were highly respected in their day, though they have been lost in oblivion for the past 250 years.

Little did the Town Council know that their actions would become a sort of prism through which 21st-century arts patrons can study 18th-century musical taste.  To appreciate art, you must first understand it.  Might it be that the Leipzig Town Council understood the artistry of Telemann, Graupner and Fasch better than we do? 

And why is it that the 18th-century public had such a radically different view of these composers than we do today?  Can we actually assume that they were ignorant, and that we know better? 

With the help of an orchestra and a couple of actors, we have the opportunity to evaluate the four candidates on their own terms.   Apollo’s Fire takes on the role of the orchestra that played for these auditions – the Leipzig Collegium Musicum – and our Noble Publick is entrusted with judging the competition. 

Join us for an evening of musical and theatrical discovery.

Wednesday, October 3 – Sunday, October 7,
in Canton, Akron, Cleveland Heights and Rocky River
Call 216.320.0012 for tickets

PAUL FLORIANO, actor, is a former company member of the Cleveland Play House. Paul has produced musical revues such as Motown, From The Play House To Broadway, and Broadway Memories. On the mainstage of the Cleveland Play House, Paul was featured in Love, Janis, The Infinite Regress of Human Vanity and A Kiss For Cinderella. Paul has appeared at Lincoln Center in New York, and was in the National Tour of Tomfoolery.Other Playhouse Square appearances include Shear Madness and Tony ‘n Tina’s Wedding. Akron sightings include The Sound of Music and Footloose at Carousel Dinner Theatre and directing Footloose at Players Guild in Canton. At the Beck in Lakewood Paul has been featured in Moby Dick, The Fix, Art, Miss Saigon, Lobby Hero and On The Town. Paul’s company, Floriano Productions, produces murder mysteries and corporate entertainment all over the country.

GEORGE ROTH, actor, received rave reviews this summer for his performance as Fagin in Cain Park's production of Oliver! Next month he will open in The Chosen at the Cleveland Play House. He was a member of the Great Lakes Theater Festival company for four years, and has appeared on many local stages. George trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. His work in England included a West End appearance in Brighton Beach Memoirs for the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain at the Aldwych Theatre. Film and television credits include: Batman, The Russia House, Nightbreed, Doing Time on Maple Drive, Murphy Brown, Love and War, Get a Life, and Capital City. George is a two-time Jeopardy® champ and a twenty-year cancer survivor. He lives in Mayfield Heights with his wife, Elizabeth, and their nine-year old daughter, Olivia.

After deciding to build a program around the four composers involved in the Leipzig job search, I was then faced with the rather daunting responsibility of choosing which piece of music we would perform to represent each composer, and then… finding printed music for the musicians to play from.  Normally this kind of detective work takes me to the Oberlin Conservatory Library, which houses an outstanding collection of early music.  However, in this case we are dealing with two Very Obscure Composers – Graupner and Fasch – so obscure that Oberlin could not help me very much. 
 
Two of the pieces I chose for the program have not been published at all, and exist only as manuscripts in libraries in Dresden and Darmstadt, Germany.  The fact is that these pieces have never been performed in North America, as far as I know.  Apollo’s Fire, which been happily performing Very Old Music for 15 years, now finds itself in the business of giving American premieres.
 
I am very grateful to two bright and spirited musicologists, Brian Clark in Scotland and Kim Patrick Clow in New York, who agreed to help me introduce these two works to North America.  They rolled up their sleeves and poured over the dusty German manuscripts, creating printed orchestral parts especially for Apollo’s Fire.  Thanks to their scholarship and dedication, I believe that Mssrs. Graupner and Fasch will have a fair hearing at the upcoming “auditions.” 

- Jeannette Sorrell

“Summer Nights in Venice,” Apollo’s Fire’s delightful 15th Anniversary Benefit, was held on June 24 at the Mayfield Country Club.  Thanks to the hard work of committee leaders Nancy King Smith, Bonnie Humphrey, and Kemp Smith, the event was a smashing success!  Patrons were delighted with the comments of special guests Robert Conrad of WCLV Radio and Don Rosenberg of the Plain Dealer.  And another guest… with extraordinary red hair… certainly will not be forgotten.  Antonio Vivaldi’s appearance was made possible, shall we say, courtesy of actor Paul Floriano, who seems to be the composer’s sole representative in North America.  Vivaldi’s attempts to coach the musicians, interview Mr. Rosenberg, and assist with the live auction, will perhaps be remembered as fondly as the fiery performance of his music by Jeannette Sorrell and the AF musicians.