“Borrowed Light,” the world-reknowned music-and-dance production based on Shaker music, is about to have its première performances in Paris, France.

Under Anne Azéma’s direction, The Boston Camerata is preparing to collaborate once again with the Tero Saarinen Dance Company of Helsinki, Finland, for a series of March performances in Europe. Choreographed by Saarinen and sung live by Camerata musicians, “Borrowed Light” has now had over seventy appearances in Europe, North America, and Australasia, but has never until now played in the City of Lights.

“We are thrilled at the Paris invitation,” comments Azéma. “It’s happening in one of Europe’s most important performance halls, the Palais de Chaillot, and it’s a joy to be singing and dancing there.”

The tour begins on March 5 with two shows in Finland, before moving to the Paris venue.

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The March, 2014, “Borrowed Light” tour in Europe is only a few weeks away….today the female half of the cast convenes to rehearse singing, staging, and a little hand music, all part of the show. You have rarely heard womens’ voices blend so beautifully!

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We recently learned that Nicolas Linfield, one of Camerata’s most valued and important collaborators during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, died in Florida last December.

Many, many of you have heard Nick’s voice on the “Medieval Christmas” and “Sing We Noel” Nonesuch albums, reading in his utterly convincing and eloquent version of Chaucerian English. Those beautiful recorded performances, we are glad to say, are still available commercially, and continue to delight thousands.

Besides reading texts, Nick was a gifted educator, scholar, mime, and actor. He exuberantly road-managed Camerata’s first European tour in 1975 and became a friend and confidante to several of us. We think back on those years, their joys and sorrows, with a great deal of emotion.

In this photo, recently unearthed from an old box of slides, we see Nicholas Linfield, right, acting in his own edition of the middle-English “Third Shepherd’s Play,” alongside Mark Baker (left) and the late Robert J. Lurtsema (center), during a mid-1970’s performance of “A Medieval Christmas” at Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Joel Cohen

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