Renaissance

Seraphim performs every autumn at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Our repertoire includes madrigals, folk songs, children’s songs and dances, songs composed by Henry VIII, rounds, and sing-alongs.  Most of our Renn repertoire is choreographed, either with formal court dances adapted to singing, or other choreographed works such as tableaux and masks using authentic dance steps from the period. In our 1/2 hour stage show at the Faire, we use dialog to introduce the group, draw in the audience, and bring greater understanding of the music. We also regularly perform a longer, 1 hour version of our Renaissance show at concert series in the DC metro area. In this show we use a lot of audience involvement, including crowning an audience member as King Henry VIII and interacting with him.

Here are portraits of the ladies and some of their background.

Mistress Martha Spencer: From a very rich merchant family, spoiled, willful and not always as ladylike and mindful of convention as her socially ambitious family would like her to be.

Contessa Nunzia: Recently arrived from Italy, learning to make her way in the court of King Henry VIII.

Lady Charlotte Howard: clever, ambitious, from the rising Howard family, distant cousin to the Queen.

Lady Kathleen Beaufort: From an old noble family–Beauforts were on the York side of the War of the Roses. Graceful, patron of the arts.

Lady Phyllis Plantagenet: wise and gracious, more royal blood than the King, but smart enough to not make a point of it.