Media Release

In its most recent collaboration with The Banff Centre, Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra premieres House of Dreams, in The Banff Centre’s Rolston Recital Hall on February 3.  Created by Tafelmusik programmer and musician, Alison Mackay, House of Dreams features masterworks by Handel, Vivaldi, Bach, Telemann and Marais, with projections of paintings and photographs from five grand European homes from the 17th and 18th century.

In the Baroque era, the five houses presented as part of this evening’s performance were home to collections of exquisite paintings and performances of music. In the Handel House, located in London, Handel composed and rehearsed Messiah, Alcina and other great works for the London stage. In Venice, the Palazzo Smith Mangilli-Valmarana was the residence of Consul Joseph Smith, the most important collector of Venetian paintings in the 18th century, and a great music lover.

The Gulden ABC in Delft, Holland, was the residence of the 17th century bookbinder and music lover Jacob Dissius, who owned 21 paintings by Vermeer. In Paris, the Palais Royal was the home of the most important private collection of paintings in Europe in the 17th century, with 500 paintings belonging to the Duke of Orleans. In Leipzig, Germany, the Bose House contained a beautiful music room where scholars think the Bach family often performed.

This multidisciplinary program immerses audiences, visually and musically, in the Baroque era with projections and multimedia elements created during a two-week production residency at The Banff Centre.  This is the second collaboration between Tafelmusik and The Banff Centre, following the international success of the 2009 work The Galileo Project. 

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For more information on The Banff Centre’s Friday Evening at the Rolston Series