A quick guide to this year's Boston Early Music Festival
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There are at least three offerings packed into most days of the festival. Sometimes there are more. It's a maybe-overwhelming array of options, so if you don't know where to start, here are some picks for events I wouldn't want to miss.
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OPERATIC OFFERINGS
The elaborate centerpiece opera, which will be performed four times during the week (June 8-June 15), is an institution of the festival. Usually, musical directors Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs and stage director Gilbert Blin put up a deep cut from the Baroque repertoire that even seasoned opera-goers may never have heard of, let alone seen performed. No effort is spared in the production, which features a full baroque orchestra in the pit, sumptuous sets and costumes, and a dance company led by Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière in addition to the cast of singers, which features Hungarian soprano and BEMF veteran Emőke Baráth in the title role this year.
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It's also a 3-hour time commitment, so if that's more than you want to bite off, consider the chamber opera double bill of Telemann's short and snappy comedy 'Pimpinone' and dramatic cantata 'Ino,' going up at Jordan Hall on June 14 with more performances in Great Barrington later in June.
THE REGULARS ARE COMING!
This year's biennial marks the 23rd for the festival, and it has nourished a network of world-class performers and ensembles that have become regular visitors. Violinist Robert Mealy, head of Yale University's respected early music program, leads the festival's in-house orchestra, which is primarily occupied in the pit for the opera, but it takes center stage with its own program of water-inspired works by Handel and Telemann (June 12). The 'Octavia' singers are booked and busy as well on their off nights - tenor Aaron Sheehan joins Paul O'Dette for a wine-soaked recital program (June 9), soprano Sherezade Panthaki teams up with Austria-based Ensemble Castor (June 10), and nearly the whole gang piles on stage for Saturday evening's post-chamber-opera extravaganza. (June 14)
BEMF presents the Tallis Scholars in a Yuletide concert most years, but they're on hand during this summer festival for two programs – one with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble (June 9) and a Sistine Chapel-inspired program on their own (June 11). And I'm personally biased because I have a friend in period string ensemble ACRONYM, but I never pass up a chance to see them – and going by the fact that this is the group's fourth consecutive festival, neither do the BEMF organizers.
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RARER SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Boston Camerata is hardly an unfamiliar name around town, but for BEMF, the ensemble is rolling out the local debut of 'A Gallery of Kings,' which premiered to acclaim at France's Reims Cathedral several years ago. Stephen Stubbs is also known around these parts for being one of BEMF's creative head honchos, but he also artistic directs the Seattle-based Pacific MusicWorks, which makes its BEMF debut in the late-night slot on June 10 with the intriguingly titled 'Murder, Mayhem, Melancholy, and Madness,' featuring soprano Danielle Reuter-Harrah.
The relentlessly creative Norwegian ensemble Trio Mediaeval is returning to the festival after several years away, with an intriguing lineup of chant by Hildegard von Bingen and elaborate songs by English composer Leonel Power; their arrangements feature a miniature organ, hurdy-gurdy, and Hardanger fiddle – a Norwegian violin variant known for its haunting, resonant sound (June 11).
Montreal-based Constantinople, helmed by Kiya Tabassian on the setar (three-stringed Persian lute), is behind the Bach and Khayyam program; soprano Hana Blažíková lends her voice to the group, which incorporates classical Middle Eastern instruments alongside the Baroque European.
BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
June 8-15. Various venues. www.bemf.org
A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
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