By Sheryl DeVore
To celebrate Tempel Farms 65th anniversary this summer, Esther Buonanno, program director for Tempel Lipizzans, worked with a former opera singer and music arranger to create new music for the dressage horses. Opening performance is on June 18, Father’s Day, followed by various performances on select Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 3.
For decades, the trained Austrian horses leaped, jumped and performed medieval battle movements such as the lavade and the courbette to classic music at the Old Mill Creek farm, which opened in 1958.
This summer, the horses will still dance and perform, but to a wider genre of music that Buonanno said reflects meaningful pieces in the history of the United States.
“It’s really experimental. It’s a new expression. I’m so eager to share it with people,” said Buonanno, granddaughter of the Tempel Lipizzan founders.
“We’re so accustomed to seeing these horses with the beautiful baroque music, and that’s a beautiful match,” she said.
“These horses are meant to be an expression of music, and this new music just works, she said. The audience will hear tunes from Broadway musicals as well as those written by George Gershwin. They’ll hear ragtime music when the mares and the foals come out at the beginning to prance and show off. They’ll hear some swing music during a solo Lipizzan performance.
“It’s all very dramatic and it really pulls you in,” Buonanno said.
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“Some purists might want the old classical music back,” she said. “But there’s nothing radical about the new music. The music is quite sophisticated. “
Buonanno said she created a new musical arrangement for recent holiday performances by the Lipizzans.
“It seemed like a huge deal to step outside (the box.) But it brought so much joy to the audience,” she said.
Buonanno said matching the music to the horses’ steps is more complex than, for example, teaching someone to dance the waltz in three-quarters time.
“We look at the walk, the gait, the trot, the canter with a particular horse,” she said. “It’s as if the horse is another instrument in the music.”
She likened it to the way gymnasts perform floor routines to music.
“It’s not magic. It’s not trickery,” Buonanno said. “It’s based on the natural movements of the horse.”
A few years ago, Tempel Farms also introduced a special performance showing how Lipizzans learn to dance. Buonanno said she has included several of these performances in the summer because they are popular with the audience.
Buonanno will moderate the first performance on June 18 talking about the Lipizzan breed and introducing the breeding stallions A special performance honoring veterans will be held on July 9. On July 15, National I Love Horses Day, the Tempel Farms will honor its veterinarian of 40 years.
The Lipizzan breed got its start in 1580 and became known for its ability to not only maneuver in battles, but also to pull carriages and perform artistic, ballet-like steps.
In 1958, Chicago industrialist Tempel Smith and his wife, Esther, negotiated with the Austrian government to import 20 Lipizzans to America, and Tempel Farms became known for housing the largest privately owned herd of Lipizzans in the world.
It remains today one of few places in the world where Lipizzan horses are bred, trained and perform on the same property. The owners received an award from the Austrian government in 1997 honoring them for preserving the Lipizzan culture in the United States. In 1985, Tempel Lipizzans pulled the casket of an unknown soldier from the Vietnam War at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Tempel Lipizzans Summer Performances
When: June 18-Sept. 3: 1 p.m. on select Wednesdays and Sundays and 6 p.m. on select Saturdays; how a Lipizzan stallion learns to dance on select Wednesdays at 1 p.m.
Where: Tempel Farms, 17000 Wadsworth Road, Old Mill Creek
Tickets: $25-$95
Information: 847-244-5330, tempelfarms.com
Sheryl Devore is a freelance reporter for the Lake County News-Sun.