Academy of Sacred Drama Avaloch Farm Residency
Movement Director
About the ProjectJeremy Rhizor, violinist and Artistic Director of the Academy of Sacred Drama invited Tony to join him and about a dozen baroque singers and musicians for a week-long residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, New Hampshire. Jeremy thought it would add a unique dimension to use movement and gesture during the performance of the Academy’s baroque oratorios.
Every rehearsal day began with an hour-long movement session of classical mime technique and intense physical training. Music rehearsals filled the rest of the day, ending with another movement workshop. Interspersed were the magnificent Avaloch Farm home-cooked meals.
The musicians, a very adventurous group, dove into the exercises with abandon. By the end of the week, the singers had added a series of tableaux, gestures and movements which more deeply and profoundly convey to an audience the emotional state of each character in the oratorio and the relationships between them. The arias and recitativos took on a new life as the physicality underscored the soaring voices and visually highlighted the magnificently rich music rendered by violin, harpsichord, viola da gamba and theorbo.
Stay tuned for information about upcoming performances:
L’Huomo in bivio (Man at the Crossroads) a tense and sometimes funny story of a man torn between the advice of an angel and of a devil. Tony will perform with the Academy for these programs in New York in November 2019.
La vittima d’amore (The Victim of Love) a profoundly moving story where Jesus’ mother, Mary, and his best friend, John, try to convince Jesus to let them be crucified in his place. Coming to New York in February 2020.