Sonnambula, Ensemble-in-Residence; Davóne Tines, Bass-BaritoneSunday, November 2, 2025, 5 – 6:30 p.m. EST

LocationStephen A. Schwarzman AuditoriumPerformersSonnambula, Ensemble-in-Residence; Davóne Tines, Bass-BaritoneProgram

A Black Masque, (Music by Ferrabosco, Byrd, and Griot texts from the 13th through 18th centuries)

TicketsSOLD OUT PoliciesConcert PoliciesQuestionstickets@frick.orgPhone212-288-0700Notes

All tickets for the 2025–26 concert season are sold out.
All concert tickets include access to the museum up to two hours before the performance begins.

Tickets RequiredYes

Sonnambula opens its 2025–26 residency with a performance inspired by Ben Jonson’s Masque of Blackness (1605), an allegorical court entertainment commissioned by Queen Anne of Denmark and originally staged at the Jacobean court. Featuring music by Alfonso Ferrabosco II (only one song of which survives), the masque depicts African nymphs journeying to England to seek racial purification, reflecting early modern England’s racial anxieties and imperial fantasies. Sonnambula, joined by acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines, interweaves instrumental works by Ferrabosco and William Byrd—representing the masque’s lost musical context—with recitations from medieval West African griot sagas such as The Epic of Sundiata and The Epic of Kele Monzon. These tales passed down by West African storytellers (griots) assert the power of oral tradition in preserving historical memory and cultural identity. Through this juxtaposition, the performance quietly unsettles Jonson’s masque, inviting reflection on the contrasting roles of music and storytelling in shaping histories and identities.