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Since we cannot gather in concert halls this holiday season, the Boston Camerata will come to you with a newly-produced streaming version of An American Christmas. Filmed at Boston’s historic Old North Church, the performance features inspiring early American music, in a program reimagined specifically for this unique and challenging year. Artistic Director Anne Azéma comments: “This glorious music from a young and hopeful nation will give us all the kind of boost we wish for at the present moment.”

The Fine Print (please read!) An American Christmas will be available for streaming at any time from December 27 until January 15. There is no limit on the number of times you can watch the show during this period. Ticket buyers will receive an email with a link, prior to show time on December 27. As our communications sometimes go into spam and junk folders (or your Promotions folder, if you use that feature in Gmail), please make sure to check those places if you can’t find our email. We encourage you to purchase tickets to give to friends this holiday season. Please contact the Camerata office for more information about ticket-gifting.

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Songs for the Season

Henry Purcell wrote a “Harvest Home,” and in old England, harvest songs to celebrate the changing season were in fact a tradition. Closer to home, our own Jeremiah Ingalls published one such song in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1805. We find its eloquent melody and somber text to be much in keeping with the current moment, and herewith offer it to you, paired with another tune that Ingalls employed, “The Cuba March.”

Here we hear:
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Rising opera star Tahanee Aluwihare, who will be interpreting the role of Dido in Camerata’s new production of Purcell’s great masterpiece, shares with us her thoughts on this upcoming adventure.

“I am really looking forward to exploring this powerful feminine role with Tahanee, a major young talent on the North American music scene,” says Artistic Director Anne Azéma. “You can catch a glimpse of Tahanee’s enquiring spirit in this short clip.”

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We dedicate this “Agnus Dei” from the beautiful Requiem by Provençal composer Jean Gilles (1668-1705) to the many who have suffered, or are suffering, in this difficult world:
  • to those who perished in the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001
  • to the victims of COVID-19 and all those who have been hurt by this pandemic 
  • to victims of cruelty, racism and racist violence
  • to those who have recently lost loved ones; our recent losses at Camerata include Don Wilkinson and Tim Evans
May all of us heal, and may music be a part of what makes us once again whole.
The soloist in this consoling performance is Patrick Mason.
 
Anne Azéma, Artistic Director
Joel Cohen, Music Director Emeritus

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…with this rollicking indictment of corruption in high places, circa 1200. Does any of this sound familiar? We are shocked, shocked.


‘Bulla fulminante’ by Philippe le Chancellier
from Carmina Burana, arr. and dir. Joel Cohen
The Boston Camerata, Joel Frederiksen, soloist

Translation:

Truth is suppressed, distraught, and sold …. If you seek preferments, in vain do you advance your record; do not bring up your good conduct, lest you upset a magistrate. In vain do you rely on your erudition, but rather you wail around for months and months, and still you can expect your preferments to be carried off by others, unless you compete with a price of equal weight.

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New to online events?

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. 

Our trailer was created by Peter Torpey featuring music from the 1979 Boston Camerata recording of Dido and Aeneas.

Tahanee Aluwihare, Dido; Camila Parias, Belinda; Luke Scott, Aeneas; Jordan Weatherston Pitts, Sorcerer; Anne Azéma, Music and Stage Director