Boston Early Music Festival feels the pinch

 Boston Early Music Festival sent out an email today announcing that it will produce Monteverdi's "L'incoronazione di Poppea" (The Coronation of Poppea), as the fully staged operatic centerpiece of its upcoming Festival & Exhibition in Boston. In the next sentence, BEMF notes that this production replaces the previously announced "Antiochus und Stratonica," by Christoph Graupner. Read one more sentence and you'll find BEMF Executive Director Kathleen Fay saying the decision was made by the BEMF management, Board of Directors, and Artistic Directors "based on the current economic climate and concerns about how this might impact BEMF's ability to raise the required funds needed to responsibly proceed with Graupner's monumental Antiochus und Stratonica."
"Poppea," Fay notes, requires a total company of 45 cast and crew, as compared to well over 100 for "Antiochus." "Antiochus" is postponed to a future festival. Ticketholders can transfer their seats to the new production, or call 617-661-1812 for more information. This year's event runs June 5-14, 2009, with the theme "The Power of Love."