January 11, 2003 – Review

By Wynne Delacoma, Classical Music Critic
Reprinted from the Chicago Sun Times

Ars Antigua, Jerry Fuller’s resourceful early music ensemble, offered some high spirits of its own Saturday afternoon in Quigley Seminary Chapel. During a recent trip to Europe, singers Peter and Kathleen Van De Graaff unearthed a short comic opera by Italian Baroque composer Domenico Sarri that had been overlooked for almost 300 years. Titled “The Clever Woman and the Foolish Man” and performed in English, it was a lively little tale of an impoverished beauty determined to snag a loving, but preferably rich, husband. Quigley’s resonant space often swamped Kathleen Van De Graaff’s light soprano. But she was a feisty maiden and cut a fetching figure disguised as a fearsome cavalier, complete with bushy mustache and dashing, brimmed hat. Peter Van De Graaff’s baritone carried easily in the chapel, and his performance was a nice blend of silly and serious.