Asteria brings centuries-old love songs to light in the Mansion at Strathmore.
Soprano Sylvia Rhyne cannot think of a more appropriate venue in which to sing than in the intimate setting of the Mansion at Strathmore — unless it happens to be the chapel of a castle in Burgundy.
She and her partner, tenor and lute player, Eric Redlinger, form the singing duo called Asteria, the name being Greek for stars. Their passion is to shed light on the artistic legacy of the French court of Burgundy during the Renaissance through the very sensual songs written during the reign of Charles the Bold.
“Music for a Rash Prince” is a program of pieces written by Antoine Busnoys that were performed in the court of the French royal family. These lyrical poems placed to music offer incredible insight into the courtly love songs that delighted Charles who, it is written, insisted on having a new song sung to him every evening. Each is a little “slice of life” tidbit centering on knights, ladies and gossip.
“There is not a vast amount of [music] written during the late Middle Ages,” Rhyne said, whose background includes performing in several musicals on Broadway. “Much of it has not been translated into modern notation.”
To this end, the couple has spent a portion of each year out of the last four in France, studying a manuscript they found in Dijon that was written in medieval musical notation with lyrics in medieval French.
“Part of what we really strive for is [to] know what every word means,” Rhyne continued. “Also there was a need to feel, to discover how people at that time lived, what the castles felt like, who they saw, what their stresses were.”
The couple, with 50 songs — or four hours of performance — committed to memory, is convinced much of the music has not been heard for 600 years.
The audience program provides the French verses with their English translations, beautiful words that are enhanced by the fact that Rhyne and Redlinger are also lovers. Who else could be more believable with lyrics like “Et je l’aime plus qu’assez … affin que ch[asc] l’entende” or “I love him more than enough … for everyone to perceive it?”
