First Contact
Voices of Light by Charlie Griffin
Founded at Rollins College in 1935 , the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park is the oldest continuously operating arts organization in Central Florida . Led by artistic director and conductor John Sinclair since 1990 , the Bach Festival Society has forged a reputation as a mainstay of our cultural calendar and a pillar of the arts community . That reputation rests in part on the formidable forces brought to bear : with a full-sized professional orchestra and a more than 150-voice auditioned volunteer choir , Sinclair is able to lead the group through live performances of massive works that are themselves considered mainstays of the historical repertoire , such as Beethoven ’ s 9th Symphony , Brahms ’ German Requiem or Carl Orff ’ s Carmina Burana .
Alongside the Bach Festival ’ s longstanding commitment to devote its resources to these large-scale masterpieces is their commitment to honor the new . On November 18 and 19 , the Bach Festival presented Voices of Light , a large-scale multimedia work conceived by composer Richard Einhorn in 1994 . Voices of Light merges Carl Theodor Dreyer ’ s 1928 silent fi lm The Passion of Joan of Arc with a live performance of Einhorn ’ s original music for orchestra , chorus , and soloists .
By itself , the fi lm has a fascinating history . Based on the actual transcript of the trial of Joan of Arc , and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti , the fi lm depicts her captivity , trial , and execution in England . Henry
Maldonado , The Enzian Theater ’ s president and collaborator with the Bach Festival for the event , says that we “ watch these classics in the present . Great fi lms stand on their own . We don ’ t need to make allowances for them .”
What Maldonado means about the power of classic fi lms when viewed in the present , is that a classic fi lm ’ s direction and treatment of themes allow viewers to identify sympathetically with the fi lm ’ s characters , and within that identifi cation , to recognize our own humanity . The
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