Musical Styles

Every culture and every era has produced music of great expressiveness and beauty. We do our children (and ourselves) a great disservice if we adopt a narrow musical perspective. The North Cambridge Family Opera looks for opportunities to expose its participants and audience to musical styles from various cultures and eras, and to present each of these styles with equal deference and respect. We treat no musical style as inherently “better” than any other. Our only criterion is that the music be accessible and appealing to both children and adults. The music we choose is mostly lyrical and tonal, with triadic harmonies, and it is never simplistic or condescending. Our operas so far have drawn from the classical traditions ranging from renaissance to 20th century, from influences of Indian and Middle Eastern modalities, and from jazz, blues, rock, honky-tonk, ragtime, and pop styles. We've done tarantellas, sea shanties, marches, minuets, ballads, Londonderry airs, Irish jigs, tangos, even lounge music, and we look forward to exploring more of the panoply of the world's musical diversity.