by Jarrett Hoffman

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

Sometimes, history just works out. So it is that during Women’s History Month, and falling right in between two programs by Cleveland’s Les Délices that feature her music, we celebrate the birthday (or maybe the baptism) of French Baroque composer and harpsichordist Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, whose career included making history as the first French woman to write an opera.

Those Les Délices programs not only share the music of Jacquet de La Guerre, but also help us understand her life and career more deeply.

The SalonEra episode “Women in Music,” which premiered on Monday and remains available here until midnight tonight, includes the G-major Sarabande from her 1707 collection Pièces de clavecin. Find the 15:06 mark of that video to hear the performance by harpsichordist Byron Schenkman.

Track back a little earlier, to about 11:27, to hear Schenkman share his experience discovering the music of Jacquet de La Guerre — and indeed discovering the music of women composers, period. And rewind to 5:30 to hear Les Délices artistic director Debra Nagy introduce the episode. Nagy delves into the circumstances that helped shape what opportunities were available to composers such as Jacquet de La Guerre, whose family connections allowed her to perform for King Louis XIV at the age of five.

You’ll have to wait until tomorrow evening at 7:30 pm to watch “Women of Genius,” the latest program on Les Délices’ Concert Series (tickets here), which will be centered around Jacquet de La Guerre’s cantata Judith.

But in the meantime, you have your choice of articles to get yourself up to speed. In Daniel Hathaway’s preview, soprano Clara Rottsolk describes Jacquet de La Guerre as “an unparalleled dramatist, so good at taking this miniature cantata form and telling compelling stories.” Rottsolk goes on: “One often gets colorful storms or beautiful dreams in the French repertoire but not her kind of depth. She takes it to a realm where it’s both psychological and cinematic.”

And in a review of the concert video, Mike Telin describes a “tour-de-force” performance of Judith, adding that Rottsolk’s “pure voice shudders at the thought of taking revenge, and turns majestic as Judith triumphs and Israel is saved.”

DEATH OF JAMES LEVINE:

On a more complicated note, reports have emerged today that conductor James Levine is dead, having passed away on March 9 in Palm Springs, California at age 77. In an obituary for The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini grapples with Levine’s legacy as “one of the world’s most influential and admired conductors until allegations of sexual abuse and harassment ended his career.”