JAMES KALLEMBACH composer
  • HOME
  • Biography
  • CALENDAR
  • MUSIC
    • About My Music
    • Peruse SATB
    • Peruse SSA & TTBB
    • Peruse Solo Voice
    • Peruse Instrumental Music
  • CONTACT
  • Recordings
  • ChoralPerusal

THIS AMERICAN JEZEBEL

The trial of Anne Hutchinson

Politics, sex, midwifery, religion, and power dominated the huge rift in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that culminated in the 1637 trial of Puritan Anne Hutchinson. An opera by James Kallembach revisits this dramatic Boston story: the story of America’s uncommon political DNA, where Bostonian midwife Anne Hutchinson and Governor John Winthrop clash in a feud over the public and the domestic, the common and the individual, the law and the home.

At left: a stylized tulip, a common theme of love and the home found on Puritan furniture of the 17th century.

Return

In the dark of predawn morning in a bitterly cold November in 1637, Anne Hutchinson, then pregnant with what would have been her 15th child, set out on foot with her beloved family to traverse the treacherously frozen five miles to the Great and General Court of Massachusetts to stand trial for the slandering of ministers and therefore having “troubled the peace of the commonwealth and churches.” John Winthrop, who had recently been elected governor in a clever political coup overthrowing supporters of ideals similar to Hutchinson’s, presided over the trial. In the unheated courtroom, the ominous and thick black cloaks of each Puritan are silhouetted against the rough-hewn timbers of the crude courthouse. This operatic account of this story is filled with communal singing from sources such as the Bay Psalm Book, and quotes from the meticulously documented trial. Ultimately, it is a story of political powers colliding among the ebbs and flows of life, love, and family.


Picture

John & Abigail Adams Songs (excerpts) | (Sop, Bar, + Str Quartet)
​These songs were premiered at the 250th wedding anniversary of John and Abigail Adams at their historic home in Quincy. The texts are excerpted from their amazing correspondence during the seventeen total years they spent apart in service to their country.
5. The Spring advances | 6. Should I draw you the picture of my Heart
File Size: 1617 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Bradstreet Songs (excerpt) | (Sop + Vc)
Anne Bradstreet was a contemporary of Anne Hutchinson and America's first published poet. These songs have been widely performed and will likely make an appearance in the completed Hutchinson opera. 
3. To My Dear and Loving Husband
File Size: 146 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Four Romantic Songs (excerpt) | (Sop + Pno)
Just another sample of vocal writing from the CD NEW VOICES released by the Brooklyn Art Song Society.
Four Romantic Songs (Perusal)
File Size: 1311 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Just a little off Boston Common stands a historic building on the foundations of Anne and William Hutchinson's house. Formerly the Old Corner Bookstore, before that it was home to Ticknor & Fields, arguably the most important publisher of early American literature, and Hawthorne's publisher, who channels Anne Hutchinson time and again in his masterwork, The Scarlet Letter.
Picture
All photos of James Kallembach are courtesy of  Erielle Bakkum Photography.

Choral

ORATORIOS/MAJOR WORKS
SATB
SSA/TTB

Art Song

A PRIMER OF BIRDS
FOUR ROMANTIC SONGS
JOHN AND ABIGAIL ADAMS

Recordings

​FOUR ROMANTIC SONGS
PASSION
MOST SACRED BODY
© COPYRIGHT 2015.
​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.