While no major event on the schedule this week trumps all others, there are several concerts that will merit your attention. Three of them are scheduled for Thursday night. If contemporary music was the headliner last week, this week it is early music.
>> Opera Lafayette‘s bread and butter is in presenting obscure Baroque operas, usually French, sung by exceptional voices and with the help of their fine instrumental ensemble. The group opens its season with a concert performance of Rebel and Francoeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes on Thursday (October 4, 8 p.m.). Tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (shown at right) and soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, both singers with international reputations, will sing in the first performance of this opera-ballet since the 18th century. This is the inaugural appearance by Opera Lafayette at the Music Center at Strathmore.
>> The season opener for the Folger Consort is a program of French and Italian cantatas called Groves of Antiquity. The instrumental group is joined by soprano Rosa Lamoreaux and other singers, in the intimate, beautiful venue of the Folger Shakespeare Theater on E. Capitol St. Performances are scheduled for Friday (October 5, 8 p.m.), Saturday (October 6, 5 and 8 p.m.), and Sunday (October 7, 2 p.m.).
>> The Rebel Ensemble comes to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Sunday (October 7, 7:30 p.m.) to present an all-Vivaldi program featuring L’Estro Armonico.
>> The National Symphony Orchestra opens its season on Thursday, too, pairing the world premiere of Jefferson Friedman’s Sacred Heart: Explosion with Beethoven’s ninth symphony. There are three chances to hear the program, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, on Thursday (October 4, 7 p.m.), Friday (October 5, 1:30 p.m.), and Saturday (October 6, 8 p.m.).
>> Up in Charm City, John Adams will conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra this week, unfortunately with no performance here at Strathmore. The program combines Beethoven’s seventh symphony with two works by Adams, on Thursday and Friday (October 4 and 5, 8 p.m.) and a casual concert on Saturday (October 6, 11 a.m.).
