Douce Dame Jolie: Guillaume de Machaut’s Last Affair

The final program of the organization’s 67th season is the U.S. premiere of a Camerata narrative created in 2011 for the Reims Festival, and celebrates Director Emeritus Joel Cohen’s 80th birthday. Called “world-class” by the New York Times, The Boston Camerata is known for its insightful and meticulously researched programming of wide-ranging historical repertoire. Under Artistic Director Anne Azéma – recently named an Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government – the organization’s 67th season continues in this tradition of excellence and curiosity.

About two years before he composed his famous Mass, the aging master and churchman Guillaume de Machaut fell in love with the too-young noblewoman Péronne d’Armentière, poetess, dancer, and musician, and an unconditional admirer of the older genius and his works. Their bittersweet story, told in the words of both Machaut and Péronne, and sung to the accompaniment of harps, lutes, and vielles, comprises some of the most beautiful and touching love music of the late Middle Ages, including many songs composed and dedicated by the two lovers to each other in the course of their impossible affair.