Special to The Bedford Citizen
Bedford artist Rob Dobson is producing, directing, and performing in an unusual musical evening, The Nocturnes Project, in Boston and Newton later this month.
The production’s mostly classical music is nocturnal, presented in an innovative, darkened in-the-round setting.The 11-member ensemble of professional singers, dancers, and instrumentalists has been assembled specially for this event. Nocturnes presents an intriguing mix: from an exquisite Handel aria about sleeplessness, to a traditional Sanskrit chant and an English country dance in the woods.
The Nocturnes Project will be presented at 8 pm on Friday, April 29, in Old South Church, 645 Boylston St., Boston (Copley Square), and at 8 pm on Saturday, April 30, at Second Church in Newton, 60 Highland St., West Newton – an easy 30-minute drive from Bedford, with ample parking. Tickets ($25, $20 senior, $15 student) are available on line at https://www.artful.ly/the-nocturnes-project. Call 781-271-0356 for more information.
Dobson raves about the cast for The Nocturnes Project: “They’re truly my dream team. I invited the friends and colleagues I really, really wanted for this project, and they all said yes!”
The cast includes Boston’s Poet Laureate Danielle Legros Georges, who has contributed a poem to the production that will be dramatically presented by the entire group. The newly named director of Revels, pianist Megan Henderson, will play a Chopin nocturne. Andrus Madsen, founding director of the acclaimed ensemble Newton Baroque, will bring his remarkable improvisation skills to the harpsichord. Soprano Claire Raphaelson is coming up from New York just for the project. Dobson says, “I feel so incredibly lucky to have them all helping to make this dream a reality. I guarantee a very unusual night indeed!”
CreatingThe Nocturnes Project
A triple career in the arts has informed The Nocturnes Project. Although his work is primarily singing these days, Dobson also has a longtime involvement with dance and sculpture.
He says that despite having had fulfilling experiences performing and recording with many Boston groups, he found himself wanting to work outside the traditional concert format in a multi-dimensional way. He also wanted to draw on his many years in the discipline of improvisational dance and teaching English country dance, as well as his sculpture background.
Known for his pioneering work with salvaged materials (2007 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow, invited guest at the White House, work in the American Embassies in Moscow and Kiev and museum and private collections throughout the United States) Dobson found himself wanting to integrate all of this experience into something bigger.
For The Nocturnes Project Dobson brings together all three of his art livesfor this inaugural endeavor in a larger, theatrical form. The idea for The Nocturnes Project descended all at once, he said, after performing in a Telemann opera in 2012. The project remained in gestation until last summer, when he realized he would regret not bringing his vision forward to share with audiences.
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