Amanda Forsythe in Boston Early Music Festival's 2013 'Almira' (Photo: Kathy Wittman)
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
Guillaume Dufay: O tres piteulx
Orlando Consort
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
Giovanni Valentini: Sonata a5 in G Minor
ACRONYM
Juan de Lienas: Tristis est anima mea
Newberry Consort
Ellen Hargis, director
Marin Marais: Gigue la pointilleuse
Philippe Pierlot and Myriam Rignol, viola da gamba
Julien Wolfs, harpsichord
Ludovico Agostini: O dolcezze amarissime
Doulce Mémoire
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