Music by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) – Libretto by Nahum Tate (1652-1715)
This new production of Purcell’s only true opera features performances by live and remote musicians and media elements conceived by Peter Torpey, all stitched together to be viewed from the safety and comfort of your home. Artistic Director Anne Azéma leads a stellar cast, with Tahanee Aluwihare as Dido, Luke Scott as Aeneas, Camila Parias as Dido’s sister Belinda, and Jordan Weatherston Pitts as the Sorcerer, assisted by students from Longy School of Music of Bard College and the Harvard Choral Fellows directed by Edward Elwyn Jones.
The show will be available for streaming, on-demand, from November 14-29, 2020 – ticketbuyers will be emailed links to the show, as well as a pre-concert presentation on Dido and Aeneas by Ellen T. Harris (Professor Emeritus of Music, MIT) and a post-performance conversation between Anne Azéma and Peter Torpey.
For our musical offering this week, we propose an excerpt from the 14th-century fable Le Roman de Fauvel, which spins out a biting, satirical allegory of malfeasance at the French court through the tale of the malevolent orange animal Fauvel and his efforts to take over France. Rex beatus, sung here by Michael Barrett and Timothy Evans, with Stephen Lundahl on sackbut, gives some advice to the ruling class: Do better! As indeed they should.
Joel Cohen is the narrator. Translation:
Motetus (Tim): Saint Louis now reigns in heaven, with the company of saints. You who bear his name, blood of his blood, follow his path, in a sacred bond.
Triplum (Michael): If a joyous, young, handsome and kind heart loves, it is just. For a noble, tender, and youthful heart should obtain the object of its desire, while others less noble should not know the pleasure of love.
As we wearily raise our heads, now and then, from the ancient medieval manuscripts that strain our eyes even as they fortify our souls, we notice something odd. Many of the songs and poems we diligently pore over, in Latin, Old French, and Provençal, are actually political polemics! They sound like they were written by today’s disgruntled pundits on Twitter, cable TV, or on the op-ed section of your favorite daily papers.
How could this possibly be? We are shocked, shocked.
And so, we initiate the Camerata Corruption Corps (CCC), a thoughtful enterprise to keep our minds alert and engaged during these humid summer days. We’ll share with you some of the more telling rants-in-music we have unearthed from many centuries back, and we’ll allow you to apply them as you will to the people and events of our own crazy day.
Here is our first offering, Curritur ad vocem, from the thirteenth century Carmina Burana. The subject, bien sûr, is venality and corruption:
Translation:
Everyone is running towards the voice of Money. Everyone goes after that which is forbidden. That’s how to live! If anyone in this business doesn’t know how the world works, let him choose, or disappear: Get what you need, by whatever means necessary. Law is no deterrent; the judiciary doesn’t matter. Virtue is crime.
Aeneas, Ascanius, Venus, and Dido Mosaic from the Low Ham Villa (UK), AD 340
In anticipation of Camerata’s new production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, we begin another thread. We’ll follow this powerful story of love and betrayal, as it is transmitted across the centuries.
BUT anxious cares already seiz’d the queen:
She fed within her veins a flame unseen;
The hero’s valor, acts, and birth inspire
Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire.
His words, his looks, imprinted in her heart,
Improve the passion, and increase the smart.
Because of the virus, there are fewer opportunities to experience the arts, live, this summer. Yet life continues, and there is still music and movement in the air… Borrowed Light, heard and seen over much of Europe, Eurasia, and North America in over seventy performances, was, and is, one of Camerata’s most important achievements.
Thanks to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, this memorable dance-and-music production featuring the Tero Saarinen Company of Helsinki, Finland, alongside The Boston Camerata, will be available for streaming via the Internet. It’s a magnificent work, based on authentic spiritual songs transcribed from Shaker archives, and sung live by Camerata, danced to extraordinary, boundary-stretching choreography conceived by modern dance genius Tero Saarinen, and performed by his ensemble.
The online video stream will premiere on Thursday, August 20 on YouTube and will remain available until Saturday, August 22. You can RSVP here to receive the link on August 20, plus some bonus content before the event.
Music Director Emeritus Joel Cohen, whose extensive work on Shaker music inspired Borrowed Light, says “Shaker music has been an important part of my life, and the Camerata’s life, for a number of years. What draws me to Borrowed Light isn’t that it’s illustrative of the Shaker songs we do. It’s a different community and a different story from the Shaker story that we sing, but the strong bond is the Shaker music, even though it’s very simple simple song, very musical, short phrases, catchy tunes. You think, ‘OK, this is a kind of folk music,’ and yet there’s a depth to it, because it goes right to the basic questions of existence – why are we here on Earth? And Tero does that with his dance. Sometimes the dance, in my view, complements what we’re singing; sometimes I see Tero taking an almost contrary stance to the music, but in every case, it doesn’t just give a simple illustration of something anecdotal. It’s profound, it’s real, and it’s deeply in touch with the things that the Shakers themselves were in touch with when they composed these melodies.”
Click here to hear from Tero Saarinen, the choreographer of Borrowed Light, sharing some recent thoughts on that work, and its persistent appeal.
Click here for original cast members of Borrowed Light, Deborah Rentz-Moore and Daniel Hershey talking about their experiences performing this piece over a decade of international touring.
Click here to watch the trailer for the 2012 production at Jacob’s Pillow that will be streamed.
If you find Borrowed Light important and meaningful, do let us know via mail, email, and possibly via a contribution, enabling us to continue our work during these challenging times.
Because of the virus, there are fewer opportunities to experience the arts, live, this summer. Yet life continues, and there is still music and movement in the air… 
