SAXTONS RIVER — Main Street Arts continues its Hands-on music series with three concerts, the first on Sunday, Jan. 28, at 3 p.m.
“Between Goddess and Woman: Wagner, Brunnhildes, Leben” will feature Hugh Keelan on piano and soprano Jenna Rae.
Keelan has conducted orchestras throughout the world and is currently the conductor of the Windham Orchestra. He has collaborated with the great artists of our times, including Solti, Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Shura Cherkassky, Maurice Sendak, and Tom Stoppard.
He is planning a work based on Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the Ring Cycle, and Boudica, composed and co-written with Rae.
Keelan promises that audiences at this concert “will learn Celtic war cries and, from their seats, participate in battle scenes with the Roman occupiers.”
Accomplished in the roles of Leonora (Il Trovatore), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Tosca (Tosca) and the great Mahler song cycles, Rae now addresses the roles of Brünnhilde and Isolde that are Wagner's vocal and dramatic pinnacle.
She is co-creator with Hugh Keelan of Wolf, a children's musical based on St. Francis, and Boudica, a grand opera in which she will sing the title role of the Celtic warrior queen from the first century.
Keelan says of Rae: “Wherever Jenna Rae performs, there is beauty, rigor, generosity of emotion, and an unusual ability to connect.”
Future concerts in the series are planned for Sunday, Feb. 18. “Classical by Intention: Bach, Stravinsky, and Fauré” will feature Keelan and violinist Gudrun Weeks.
The March 18 concert is titled “Three Quirky Composers: Beethoven, Hayden, and Dvorak” and adds Peggy Spencer on violin and Zon Eastes on cello to Keelan's piano.