English renaissance composer, singer and virtuoso lutenist John Dowland is famous today for his refined love songs and his fiendishly difficult solo lute pieces.
His music is a staple for many modern ensembles that specialize in early music.
The concert of that kicks off Early Music Now’s season this Saturday imagines Dowland’s music not as performed in a drawing room in London, but rather in a pub in Dublin. Tenor Michael Slattery joined forces with the Montreal based ensemble La Nef to explore what the music might sound like played and sung like that, and the concert, Dowland in Dublin, is the result.
Slattery speaks with Lake Effect's Bonnie North about the upcoming show, and the group's new take on Dowland's music.
"What we wanted to do was to give his tunes the same opportunity to be explored as the thousands of fiddle tunes that were written down from the same period of time," Slattery says.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz5RE3-Z-W4
