Full of joy and delightful discovery, this holiday program is one of Camerata’s most popular. It features a generous selection of carols, New England anthems, Southern folk hymns and religious ballads for the season from the early years of the American republic, and from a wide range of early tune books and manuscripts.
Cast: 6 musicians, with Anne Azéma; fuller version, with brass: 10 musicians and Anne Azéma
A commission of the French Consulate in Boston and premiered a few months after the 2019 fire which destroyed in part the Notre Dame cathedral, this program was again performed in 2022 to public and critical acclaim, toured domestically in April 2024, and is available for touring.
Photo: Dan Busler, free of rights
Medieval Paris was not only a center of learning, debate, art, and architecture: it was also a capital of musical creation and innovation, the most important in Europe. You will hear the magnificent vocal music sung within the walls of the great cathedral, as well as miracle tales, student songs, and minstrel turns performed in Notre Dame’s shadow, on either bank of the steadily flowing Seine. A feast!
Anne Azéma and Shira Kammen. Photo: Dan Busler
Cast: 4 men, 3 women, and one instrumentalist (vielle and harp) This program welcomes the participation of an adjunct choir.
‘A power beyond words, elevating your heart with the music.’ – Milwaukee Mag
A glimpse of Christmas spirituality from Medieval France, Italy, England, Provence, including music of the church and songs of private devotion around the joyous theme of the Nativity. Included are songs to the Virgin Mary, processionals from Saint Martial of Limoges, hymns, lyrics, and miracle ballads, sung in Latin, Old French, Old Provençal, Saxon, interlaced with Medieval English texts of the Nativity.
Artistic Director Anne Azéma is joined by Camila Parias and Deborah Rentz-Moore (voices), as well as Shira Kammen, vielle and harp (or Allison Monroe, vielle), and Christa Patton, harp and winds. Photo by Dan Busler
“The [Camerata] ensemble takes you to a place of hope, redemption, and everlasting peace…Simply beautiful, and not just for Christmas.” – Der Spiegel (Germany)
“The singing is crisp, pure, yet with plenty of emotional heft… The accompaniments – on medieval fiddle, harp, bells and ancient winds – are lively and evocative.” – Limelight Magazine (Australia)
Photo by Dan Busler
This program welcomes the participation of adjunct female or children ensembles.
“Effortlessly, at every step, the Torpey-Azéma mise en scène teased out the timeless from the historic, the general from the personal, the allegorical from the concrete. The Boston Camerata infused Henry Purcell’s most beloved masterpiece with new life, immediacy, and meaning. “Boston Musical Intelligencer, 2023
“A feast for the ears…Live-wire verve…early music with a performative flair.” – ArtsFuse, 2023
Camerata’s production of Purcell’s only true opera, born as a made-for-streaming video in late 2020, has now returned live and staged in 2023! Then as now, our Dido features live performance enhanced by lighting and media elements conceived by Peter Torpey. Artistic Director Anne Azéma leads our stellar cast, assisted by students or a local choir from your community.
The production, as currently envisioned, includes four principal singers: Dido, Aeneas, the Sorcerer, Belinda, and Mercury, plus a five-piece Baroque band, all supported by Peter Torpey’s deeply evocative lighting and projections. The other characters in the story (Second Woman, Sailor, chorus of Courtiers, Witches, Sailors) can be recruited among local students or choirs. This project could be the perfect residency project for your community, school, university, or choir.
Venue: to be determined; preferably rigged for stage lighting
Budgets: please be in touch with us. All logistical questions will be discussed and resolved according to your wishes and possibilities.
The magnificent musical play of Daniel, composed eight centuries ago in Beauvais, France, is the subject of a recent, acclaimed production by The Boston Camerata. Freshly transcribed from the original manuscript source, and powerfully staged for modern audiences by Anne Azéma, the new Daniel is available for touring during the Camerata’s 70th Anniversary season 2024-2025.
“A pure delight…Top 10” — Boston Classical Review
“Timeless spiritual message [conveyed] more convincingly than any Hollywood epic.” — The Boston Globe
“Unexpected energy and immediacy….immersive and subtle staging…hugely successful” — The Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Powerful…Impressive” — Chicago Classical Review
“Anne Azéma… one of the most intelligent, creative, and talented performers and directors not just of early music, but of any repertoire.” — Fanfare Magazine
This ambitious production combines old and new, bringing together music and movement, theater and liturgy, light and shadow, to retell the biblical story of the young prophet-in-exile. The underlying, still-contemporary themes of tyranny punished, and of redemption from bondage, are brilliantly served by Anne Azéma’s staging and by an extraordinary singing and playing cast.
The first part of the performance introduces the public to the liturgical world of Beauvais Cathedral circa 1200, with chants and songs of the New Year’s season, excerpted from the same manuscript that gives us the Daniel play.
The sacred chants segue into the Daniel play, as the liturgists become singing actors, employing simple costuming, movement and gesture in the service of the miracle tale.
The production, as currently envisioned, is made of: seven principal singers: Daniel, Belshazzar, Darius, two Envious Men, the Queen/Angel; one Courtier and the Narrator; two instrumentalists (performing on vielle, harp, and percussion); a dancer; all supported by Peter Torpey’s deeply evocative lighting and special effects.
Pedagogical Opportunities: Daniel was conceived in the Middle Ages as a student play, of and by young people; Camerata’s production incorporates and develops this basic idea. And so the other participants in the liturgy and the play (satraps, soldiers, queen and queen’s court/angels) can also be recruited among local students, choristers, children’s choir, and other musical participants in your community.
Preparing and performing The Play of Daniel touches on and involves a whole series of disciplines: musicology (history of music, paleography, musical notation, techniques of transcription); performance practice (vocal technique, different contemporary approaches to medieval music, questions of accompaniment); theology and liturgy (the relation of the play to the liturgical calendar; the place Daniel in the manuscript BL Egerton 2615); the history of theater (medieval plays and their place in ecclesiastical life; surviving documentation concerning staging and performance), the place of rejected and marginalized people. This project could be the perfect residency project for your community, school, university, church, choir.
Anne Azéma will guide the preparation of this project with local musicians and their directors in your community. Final rehearsal periods will be conducted later, with the Camerata musicians and crew, and on location.
Summer is a time to relax and enjoy life, agreed. But for a company like ours, it’s also a season of intense work, preparing for the musical events to come, beginning in the fall.
Our roster of superb artists for Camerata’s 2021-22 season is now virtually complete, and we want to share their portraits with you. Individually and together, they will be there, singing and playing repertoire ranging from the European Middle Ages to the historic American spiritual tradition, providing us all with beautiful music and vital life energy during these challenging times. Please come see and hear these exceptional people! We would love to hear from you.
Top row: Anne Azéma, Luke Scott, Camila Parias, Ian Saunders, Allison Monroe Middle row: Jordan Weatherston Pitts, Craig Juricka, Milton Wright, Mildred Walker, Christa Patton Bottom row: Dan Hershey, Michael Barrett, Shira Kammen, Deborah Rentz Moore, Joel Cohen
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And, as a later-summer gift, here’s a lovely American spiritual, “Something New,” to announce our season full of new things, and to celebrate the renewal of life that comes with programming and casting for the coming months.
Join Anne Azéma and Nigel North at the Lyman Estate, for a springtime celebration of early French music. Below, you can sample the musical pleasures and download the program book, all for free. And then we hope you’ll join us for the complete program, including tender love songs, rare and elegant solo lute pieces, and even a spicy, R-rated satire, all performed with verve by the most eminent artists in their field.
Ticketbuyers will receive an email containing the link directly after purchase.
Sample the Best of the Boston Camerata’s Online 2020-21 Season
Join Anne Azéma and Nigel North at the Lyman Estate (Waltham, MA) for Songs to the Lute, a celebration of early French music, including tender love songs, rare and elegant solo lute pieces, and even a spicy, R-rated satire, all performed with verve by the most eminent artists in their field. This performance is streaming on-demand now through May 31.
We will soon reopen our Dido and Aeneas, enjoyed last fall by music lovers on four continents and in 30 US states, for on-demand streaming from June 7-20, 2021.
Produced under Anne Azéma’s direction in late 2020 under strict COVID mitigation protocols, our Dido stars Tahanee Aluwihare, Luke Scott, Camila Parias, and Jordan Weatherston Pitts, assisted by young professionals from Longy School of Music and backed by an all-star Baroque band. Its return is not to be missed!
Tickets for this event can be purchased with a $20 donation to the Camerata. As always, if you buy your ticket before the streaming period begins, you will receive the link via email on the first day of streaming. Please check your spam (and your Promotions folder, if you use that feature in Gmail) if you cannot find our email.
Join Anne Azéma and Nigel North at the Lyman Estate, for a springtime celebration of early French music. Below, you can sample the musical pleasures and download the program book, all for free. And then we hope you’ll join us for the complete program, including tender love songs, rare and elegant solo lute pieces, and even a spicy, R-rated satire, all performed with verve by the most eminent artists in their field. And oh yes, a couple of very interesting behind-the-scenes interviews are included. Please get your ticket here, for unlimited viewing and listening until May 31.
Ticketbuyers will receive an email containing the link directly after purchase.
