Our December concerts began with three sold-out performances of “The Sacred Bridge,” in Cambridge and in Washington, D.C. We were joined once again by our friends of the Sharq Arabic Music Ensemble. We loved our audiences: quoth the Boston Globe, “The [Boston] audience applauded… as if it would have been happy to stay till dawn.” Joel, too, tells us he was thrilled to be leading this production once again, and also to get his chance, thanks to the miracle of digital photography in the Dumbarton Oaks museum, to produce a Christmas/Hanukah greeting card in the style of King Alfonse the Wise’s medieval illuminated manuscripts…
Then Anne Azéma took over the leadership role for the remainder of the month, and directed the first performances of “A Medieval Christmas” to be heard in our home area in a decade. An enthusiastic cast of Camerata veterans and newcomers helped Anne shape her own, personal vision of this now-classic Camerata program. People who have been following the evolution of this production over the years tell us they loved the current blend of old and new. WGBH radio was present, and broadcast large excerpts of “Medieval Christmas” coast-to-coast on Christmas day. And resident sound-and-image gurus David and Harriet Griesinger documented the Cambridge performance on video. We’ll have more news on that audiovisual front a little later…