The 2023 Boston Early Music Festival

A biennial festival that produces historically staged operas, and an array of concerts, lectures, classes, exhibitions, and symposiums, the Boston Early Music Festival is internationally recognized as a leader in its field. Executive director Kathleen Fay and artistic co-director Paul O’Dette preview the upcoming festival, the first in-person festival since 2019. This year’s festival theme is “A Celebration of Women,” honoring the work of women, both current and past; and illuminating the integral role that women have always played in great classical music. Learn more about the 2023 festival HERE.

Watch a scene from the 2011 festival centerpiece opera Niobe, Regina di Tebe.

Playlist

Christoph Graupner: Overture from Antiouchus und Stratonica
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, directors

Jean-Baptiste Lully: Psyché
Act V: Prelude for Apollo and chorus of celestial deities
Aaron Sheehan, tenor
Boston Early Music Festival Chorus & Orchestra
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, directors

Agostino Steffani: Niobe Regina di Tebe
Act I: “Dell alma stanca…Sfere amiche”
Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, directors

John Blow: “Welcome ev’ry guest” from Amphion Anglicus, 1700
Amanda Forsythe, soprano
Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, directors

Johann Sebastian Bach: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
IV. Glorie, Lob, Ehr und Herrlichkeit
Vox Luminis
Lionel Meunier, director

George Frideric Handel: Harpsichord Suite No. 3 in D Minor, HWV 428
I. Prelude
II. Allegro
Francesco Corti, harpsichord

Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari: Sonata in A Minor Op 9 No. 3
I. Spiritoso
Stefania Neonato, fortepiano

J.S. Bach: Trio super Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, BWV 660
Christa Rakich, organ

Michel Lambert: Vos mépris chaque jour
Les Délices
Debra Nagy, oboe and direction

Luisa Elena Paesano : Gaván con Revuelta (Joropo)
Rumbarroco
Laury Gutiérrez, viola da gamba and direction

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: Ciaccona in A from Serenada in Mascara
Tekla Cunningham, violin
Pacific MusicWorks
Stephen Stubbs, baroque guitar and direction

Marin Marais: Gigue la pointilleuse
Philippe Pierlot and Myriam Rignol, viola da gamba
Julien Wolfs, harpsichord

Pietro Torri: “Son rosignolo” from Ismene
Dorothee Mields, soprano
Stefan Temmingh, recorder
The Gentleman’s Band

Handel: “Iris Hence Away” from Semele
Lucile Richardot, contralto
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Steffani: Niobe Regina di Tebe
Act III: Ballo di soldati festeggianti (Chaconne)
Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, directors