Every generation faces deep challenges, and ours is no exception. And at times during these recent difficult, troubling months, I have felt the need to find calming, centering energy from which to draw strength; perhaps you have felt that need as well!
And so, we at Camerata propose a life-affirming musical season full of both challenge and consolation. Let's celebrate, together, the healing forces of music and the arts as we strive to move ourselves, and our beloved nation, into a better place.
"These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine in 1776. But what fantastic music and verse arose from those early years of our Republic, as its citizens sang and played forth their love of freedom and their rejection of tyranny! Please share some of those seminal early moments: tender and heroic, playful and serious, rebellious and repentant, as we present our newest Americana production,
Our December production, La Estrella, has chosen the Star of Bethlehem as its emblem and standard. Experience with us the diverse musical voices of Spain and the Spanish New World, as Spaniards, Native Americans, and West Africans gather, like the Magi in the old story, around the cradle, to retell the eternal story, in their own languages, melodies, rhythms, and dialects.
Daniel, which premièred in Boston in 2014, returns once more in 2020, following a third national tour. This medieval play in music seems more relevant than ever today, as the youth and scribes of old Beauvais retell the powerful Bible tale, in music, of a ruthless tyrant confronted by a young prophet of Justice, and of an oppressed peoples' redemption from bondage.
Finally, in the spring, we center our spirits on the lighter, yet complex subjects of love and desire, via some marvelous, age-old French music and poetry. The "Three Sisters" of the titles will be weaving their medieval tales, and very much from the female point of view, around these always-contemporary human challenges and conundrums. We promise some smiles, some sighs, and so much beautiful music!
