ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996 TAG: 9611270012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: ANNE DAUGHERTY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
For those who like pageantry in their holiday celebrations
For those who cherish "merry olde England" as the classic Christmas Radford University's annual madrigal dinner is a favorite way to start the holiday season with traditional music and merriment.
On Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 5-7, the university's choral ensembles will present its Renaissance-style dinner at 6 p.m. in the banquet hall of Muse Hall. The event is already a sellout for this year, although hopeful guests can add their name to a waiting list with the university's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Seats with partly restricted view will be made available to as many as possible on the waiting list.
A madrigal dinner is interactive theater at its best. The audience joins in as if its members were the personally invited guests of the king for this special holiday feast. The atmosphere is filled with music, color and pageantry.
Each course of the traditional English dinner will be accompanied by
a procession and a carol, culminating with the arrival of the flaming pudding. Each table will be serenaded during dinner, either by the madrigal singers or the waiters and waitresses, who are also members of the choral program at Radford.
After dinner, the guests can settle back to enjoy a 20-minute skit, littered with puns and sprinkled with a few "groaners." This year the title of the entertainment is "The Peasant, the Prince, the Boot and the Mirror " and is based on a particularly topical theme, that of courtroom drama. But don't worry, says David Castonguay, director of choral activities in the music department, the evening will be 90 percent O.J. free. The finale of the evening is a 20-minute concert by the madrigal singers, a select group of 20 of Radford University's best vocalists.
The university's series of madrigal dinners dates back 20 years and is now an integral part of Radford's tradition. Castonguay has been at the helm of the dinners for 10 years. He also continues to expand the school's costume collection, which is used by the singers, as he broadens the musical repertoire of the students. The music performed at the dinners is neither exclusively British, nor Christmas-based, Castonguay explains, but rather an eclectic assortment of sacred and secular music from England, Italy and France.
The reputation of Radford's madrigal dinner continues to spread. The first evening is set aside to allow middle and high school students to experience the madrigal dinner. This year, students from Radford, Christiansburg, Giles County and Richlands will be joined by students from as far away as New Kent County and Woodstock. Some students will travel more than six hours to be in Radford for the event.
The madrigal dinner continues on Friday and Saturday nights, Dec. 6 and 7. To put your name on the waiting list, call Judy Wade at 831-5265. You might also want to jot the event on your calendar for next November so you can be one of the 280 guests at this holiday feast.
On Sunday, Dec. 8, much of the music from the madrigal dinner will be performed at a special holiday concert at 8 p.m. in St. Andrews Catholic Church in Roanoke. The concert will be broadcast at 6 p.m. on Dec. 15 on Music Around Roanoke on public radio WVTF.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Radford University. Radford University's annual madrigalby CNBdinner is a favorite way to start the holiday season with
traditional music and merriment.