Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado presents a unique program this weekend: a puppet ballet set to the music of “Les Elemens,” or “The Elements,” by French Baroque composer Jean-Fery Rebel.
Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 E. Hampden Ave. in Cherry Hills Village, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Regis University's Claver Recital Hall, 3333 Regis Blvd. in Denver.
The orchestra spent this week rehearsing with puppet artist Robin Walsh. Her resume includes performing in the movies “Men in Black” and “Team America: World Police;” refurbishing and preserving puppets from the classic Christmas special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer;” and creating puppet ballets for Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird.”
Walsh and Frank Nowell, artistic director of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, spoke with CPR Classical about adapting the piece, written in 1737, as a puppet ballet.
Click the audio above for the full interview. Watch footage of Walsh working on the ballet:
