Burgh House & Les Bougies Baroques are proud to present 'A Queer Georgian Social Season' Salon Concert & Social, shedding light on:
A Fabulously Queer [& Secular] Georgian Yuletide Celebration
Join us at Burgh House for the continuation of our first annual Queer Georgian Social Season as we take you back to a time when queers were more visible and accepted than you thought.
The way the Georgians would have celebrated Yuletide has much to do with the pre-Protectorate Puritan Parliament's banning of Christmas in 1647 – which occurred only 70 years prior to the Georgian era. The fact that it was not reinstated until the Restoration – when Charles II & his House of Stuart were restored to the throne – in 1660 meant that Yuletide celebrations thereafter would become more opulent – harkening back to Pagan rituals, hedonism, and extravagance as a reaction to the Puritan government's 1647 ban. Despite various Christian denominations' many efforts to halt Yuletide practices they perceived as Pagan, many of them persist to this day – thanks to the general populace's unwillingness to give them up, which eventually forced the various Christian denominations to relent & assimilate them.
One of the most fascinating developments where 18th-century Yuletide celebrations are concerned is that private multi-disciplinary entertainments – featuring sedcular insturmental music and dance inspired by Paganism & Arcadian pastroal scenes rather than by the shpherds who received the announcement of Jesus's birth – were very much in vogue. The implications of music and dance influenced by such secular concepts reminiscent of both Pagan celebrations & Classical Antiquity – originating from civilisations that Christianity as a whole deemed 'idolatrous' – go beyond mere genteel entertainment in that they evoke sensuality, homoeroticism, and the general pursuit of earthly pleasures (concepts which Chrisianity as a whole was & still is opposed to).
This immersive evening will feature musical performances of secular Yuletide music by Les Bougies Baroques (starring queer headliners Ian Peter Bugeja [conductor-harpsichordist], Sam Kennedy [leader], Julien Harman-Evans [recorder soloist], and Richard Austen [recorder soloist]), and 'tableux vivants' & somatic landscapes by Omer Gaash – which will transport you to an idyllic world where nature reigns supreme and shepherds & shepherdesses frolic the day and night away.
The Queer Georgian Social Season is conceived and curated by Ian Peter Bugeja & Mark Francis-Vasey.
Les Bougies Baroques
Conductor-harpsichordist | Ian Peter Bugeja
Leader | Sam Kennedy
Recorder Soloists | Julien Harman-Evans & Richard Austen
'Tableux Vivants' & Somatic Landscapes | Omer Gaash
Doors and bar open: 7pm
Performance start time: 7:30pm
Tickets (includes light supper): £25, £20 concessions (for under 25s)
MUSICAL PROGRAMME:
J. C. PEZ (1664-1716): Concerto Pastorale in F major
F. O. MANFREDINI (1684-1762): Concerto Grosso in C major
G. P TELEMANN (1681-1767): Concerto Polonois in G major
M. CORRETTE (1707-95): Sinfonia VI from 6 Symphonies en Quatuor sur les Noëls