Ragazzi Continuo Presents "Winter Wonderland"

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (20 November 2019) —Ragazzi Continuo will whisk Bay Area audiences into the realms of snow and frost with its holiday concert series, Winter Wonderland. Seeking inspiration for this year’s concert, the troupe harkened back to its Winter’s Warmth concert which featured songs about toasty Christmas fires, sparks, and light. Winter Wonderland was crafted to bring attention to the other side of winter less seen in this area, in a nod to chillier climates. The concert will feature widely varied pieces, from texts by Shakespeare to Austrian drinking songs, works by Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Debussy, and more. Ragazzi Continuo is the adult a cappella choir composed of graduates of the acclaimed Ragazzi Boys Chorus. Winter Wonderland will be performed 7:30pm, Sunday, December 15 in Redwood City; 7:30pm, Saturday, December 21 in Palo Alto; and 3:00pm, Sunday, December 22 in San Francisco (venues/addresses listed below). For tickets ($25 General Admission, $20 Early Bird - Online, $15 Seniors/Students) and information, visit www.ragazzicontinuo.org or email info@ragazzicontinuo.org.

Winter Wonderland features a diverse holiday program for audiences of all ages, from Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s Stormy Weather to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Weather Canon. Holiday classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Walking in a Winter Wonderland, and Frosty the Snow Man will also be performed.

Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Karl Klingemann’s poem Herbstlied (The Autumn Song) paints the changing seasons with Mendelssohn’s largely homophonic, a cappella accompaniment. John Rutter’s setting of the poem Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind from Shakespeare’s As You Like It will also be featured.

Trinklied im Winter (Drinking Song in Winter) is a joyful drinking song by Austrian composer Franz Peter Schubert. Known for his ability to adapt to almost any kind of musical form, Schubert produced masterful works with rich harmonies and legendary melodies for a variety of genres.

Claude Debussy’s Trois Chansons is set to three texts by medieval poet and prince, Charles d’Orléans, and were the only a cappella choral works Debussy ever wrote. Ragazzi Continuo will perform the final vignette of this series: Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain (Cold winter, villain that thou are). In this work, Debussy personifies winter and the poet’s anger with winter using stark single lines and cold harmonies sung in harsh haste.

Drawing inspiration from the melody of Whistle While You Work from Snow White, Fleet Foxes’s White Winter Hymnal is an ode to the beauty of winter that will captivate audiences with its soaring choral harmonies. The song’s short length and minimalist lyrics convey the feeling of a traditional hymn, while the harmonized vocals have a cold and distant sound related to winter.

Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi’s Winter brilliantly conveys the biting cold, gusting wind, trembling bodies, and chattering teeth. Winter is the first movement of The Four Seasons, Vivaldi’s set of four violin concertos that each give a musical expression to a season of the year. The four concertos were composed to accompany the text of four sonnets written by Vivaldi himself.

Ragazzi Continuo was formed in September 2010 and now consists of thirteen choristers, all of whom sang in Ragazzi Boys Chorus during their formative years. All of the members participated in their college choirs, but finding a post-college men’s chorus that allowed them to thrive musically, as they had as Ragazzi boys, proved challenging. Thus Ragazzi Continuo was born, and is currently comprised of members whose work finds them teaching voice, working in tech, and more. Their love of music, years of training, and finely-honed ensemble are evident in their stirring performances.