Flowers from Rain
Conquistador compositions
Thursday 22 June 2023, 19:30 - 21:30
St Botolph's Church [ map ]
Bishopsgate
London EC2M 3TL
Orlando Chamber Choir
Lucy Goddard, director
When the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores landed in Latin America, they cruelly earned their name, conquering the indigenous civilisations with guns, germs and steel. Throughout the 16th century, cultures clashed and slowly merged; and for all its darkness, the cloud of colonialism also rained down a resplendent musical mix which blended the wonder and wisdom of two worlds in its vibrant villancicos – ¡Ay!
From this melting pot we pour a captivating cocktail of plainchant with percussion, rhythmical Renaissance dance and off-beat baroque with exotic embellishments – ¡Oye! We follow the music (and the drumbeats) throughout a full liturgical year, singing you from country to country with reverberations all the way to contemporary Venezuela. At the core of our programme brightly blossoms Juan de Padilla’s Missa Ego flos campi, around which scintillate the sounds of Capillas, Franco, De Zéspedes and other shining musical stars.
The church will be a parasol under which your pew shall tremble with the sun-bright colours of their polyphony – ¡Apúntate!
