Ensemble for contemporary Interpretation of Early Music | Late Middleages – Renaissance – Early Baroque

Eva Leonie Fegers | Alina Loewenich | Fabio Kapeller | Friederike Vollert | Julia Willeitner | Alexander Gergelyfi

opia unites 6 musicians in search of tonal diversity, rhythmical finesse and experimental joy - Eva Leonie Fegers, soprano, recorders , Alina Loewenich, recorders, Fabio Kapeller, percussion, Friederike Vollert, recorders, Julia Willeitner, viols and Alexander Gergelyfi, historical keyboard instruments.

After several years of collaboration in various constellations, the musicians Fegers, Loewenich and Kapeller founded the ensemble in spring 2019, the musicians Alexander Gergelyfi, Friederike Volkert and Julia Willeitner then joined the consort.

In the founding year, they had already reached the final of the Tel Aviv Recorder Competition (ISR). In July they won the 2nd Prize at the Concorso di Musica Antica "Maurizio Pratola ", L'Aquila (ITA). The CD production as you like it. was awarded an art grant during the 2022 Bank Austria Crowdfunding. The CD was released in 2023 by ArsProduktion.

opia has performed in Austria, Germany, Italy and Israel and has appeared at renowned festivals such as the Grafenegg Festival (AUT), the Innsbruck Early Music Festival (AUT), the Serenades of the Brucknerhaus Linz (AUT), the Shakespeare Festival at the Globe Theater Neuss (DEU) and the Hohenloher Kultursommer (DEU). The musicians have also taken part in several productions for the radio stations Ö1 and BR-Klassik.

Their CD production as you like it. was supported by the webakemit. and Bank Austria Crowdfunding in 2022. The CD was released by ARS Produktion in 2023.

The focus of the ensemble is on the lively interpretation, recomposition and improvisation of music from the Late Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Early Baroque.

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as you like it. Imagevideo

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) Sì dolce è'l tormento from: Quatro Scherzo delle Ariose Vaghezza Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1624 Arrangement: opia

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Guillaume de Machaut (1300-05 – 1377) – Dame, se vous m‘estes lointeinne

opia
Eva Leonie Fegers – Recorder & Vocals
Alina Loewenich – Recorder
Fabio Kapeller – Percussion

Veronika Weidner – Recording & Sound
Vienna, 2019

Giovanni Domenico da Nola (1510-20 – 1592) – Chi la Gagliarda

opia
Eva Leonie Fegers – Recorder
Alina Loewenich – Recorder
Magdalena Kelz – Viol
Fabio Kapeller – Percussion

Veronika Weidner – Recording & Sound
Vienna, 2019

Jacobi Arcadelt (1507 – 1568) – Je ne veux plus

opia
Eva Leonie Fegers, Alina Loewenich, Paula Pinn – Recorder Consort
Fabio Kapeller – Percussion

Veronika Weidner – Recording & Sound
Vienna, 2019

impressions

programmes

Lullay…

Christmas time is the time for songs: the warm sound of music conveys a sense of security.

Songs with gentle melodies, repetitive motifs that soothe the child to sleep. The tradition of the lullaby can be found in all cultures - we can therefore assume that Mary and Joseph also sang songs to their newborn son at the crib: Out of love and care, perhaps to alleviate fear and also pain. 

We know that the shepherds and angels also made music: songs of praise and joyful, solemn sounds about the arrival of God on earth. God who became man to redeem us: The miracle of Jesus' birth. 

In lullay you can hear works from the Advent and Christmas season that tell of intimacy, hope and immeasurable joy. Vocal and instrumental music that invites you to contemplate, to rest, but also to celebrate the incarnation of God and the magic of life.

opia interprets old songs by anonymous composers in traditional or original settings, including compositions by Michael Praetorius, Biagio Marini, Johann J. Froberger, Samuel Scheidt and William Byrd.

as you like it.

As you like it – humorously, sensually, dramatically.

Inspired by Shakespeare's comedy of mistaken identity, we also move musically between the worlds: We discover the savoir vivre at the French court, hurry to the convivial Viennese tavern, flee from the plague into the warm embrace of English melancholy, overcome deep rivers in the solitude of the German forest, feel the mild Italian west wind on our skin and dream of great love on the Spanish coast at night. The ears are buzzing, the head is wondering: Is it the original, an adaptation or is it something we wrote ourselves? Who knows, who knows…

Ξ xi

With Ξ xi, three musicians embark on the exciting, experimental sound world and improvisational music practice of the 14th century. During the time of the Ars nova in France, the development of polyphony and a complex notation practice took place as well as artistic song forms such as Ballade, Rondeau and Virelai evolved - all of them complex and expressive compositions.

A similar development can be seen around the time in Italy. Popular secular genres are usually associated with stylized themes: in the Caccia hunting scenes are set to sound, in the Ballata one can listen to poetry and in the Madrigal, shepherd idylls, love, suffering and morality are melodized.

There are compositions by Landini, da Bologna, da Firenze a.o.

Eva Leonie Fegers – recorder and soprano
Alina Loewenich – recorder
Fabio Kapeller – percussion

ad astra

Songs of love can be heard right up to the starry sky - portraying joy and pain, desire and despair, intimacy and rejection.

Musically, we are located in the Italian cultural centers of the 16th century: Rome, Milan, Naples and Venice. Melancholic and humorous songs as well as swinging dances give us an impression of a human being and his search for love.

With recorders, vocals, viola da gamba and percussion, opia interprets works by Fattorin da Reggio, Vincenzo Ruffo, Giovanni da Nola a.o.

anima mea

The soul unites the variety of all emotions and the spiritual processes. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the existence of the soul, which according to the view also controlled physical processes, was assigned not only to humans but to all living beings.

The anima mea program combines French and Italian vocal and instrumental music from the 14th to the 16th century - the Ars nova, the Trecento and the Renaissance. From the development of polyphonic music to complex counterpoint. Instrumented, arranged and reconstructed for vocals, recorders, fiddle, viola da gamba and percussion. There are compositions by Machaut, Landini, da Nola, Scotto and others.

l’amour fou

The songs are as unpredictable and diverse as love itself.

The program focuses on French Renaissance chansons - interpreted with recorders, vocals and percussion. The works revolve around the theme of love and the different emotional states of the lovers: hope and disappointment, bliss and despair, desire and contempt only reflect a fraction, portrayed by secular compositions from the Franco-Flemish school. In this, the polyphonic and complex contrapuntal compositions of the 15th and 16th centuries experienced an enormous development - the emotional, direct expression though was never lost.

opia plays works by Alexander Agricola, Antoine Brumel, Nicolai Gombert, Josquin Desprez a.o.

Viva!

Life is love. A life of passions: joy and pain, desire and despair, intimacy and rejection. Almost obsessively, composers have devoted themselves to setting love to music for centuries. The beguiling melodies of the Renaissance are groundbreaking for the (world) love songs up to this day: virtuosic, sensual and full of joie de vivre!