The Pandora Consort is set to premiere an original folk opera about women’s liberation in the United States through centuries of music and stories. The folk opera, The Fire Within Her: An American Folktale About Women’s Liberation weaves together the voices of trailblazing women across centuries in early North America. From Anne Hutchinson’s defiance in Puritan Boston to Susan B. Anthony’s fight for women’s suffrage to Betty Friedan’s challenge to the “feminine mystique,” their stories unfold through shape-note songs, Shaker hymns, protest anthems, and contemporary folk music.
In the 2024-2025 season the Pandora Consort premiered and toured a program of all Hildegard vocal music, Hildegard Reanimated: Vision in Vision, featuring animated projections of her divine visions crafted by visual artist Cate Duckwall. The ensemble performed this program on many early music series, including the Society for Historically Informed Performance (SoHIP) Boston, St. James Early Music Series (PA), and the Portland Bach Experience (ME), and will continue to perform this program with Vermont Public Classical, Otter Creek Music Festival, and the Gotham Early Music Series (GEMS) this coming season.
The Fire Within Her is a departure from the more standard early music concert, with a scripted dialogue and staging created by Pandora Consort Artistic Director, Kendra Comstock, this program comes in time for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. The Fire Within Her features songs from Southern Harmony and early Christian and Shaker hymns, as well as more contemporary work ballads from The Liberated Woman’s Songbook and more contemporary folk songs by singers such as Joan Baez and Mavis Staples.
This program features the Pandora Consort’s core membership, Kendra Comstock, Angie Tyler, and Gina Marie Falk, joined by folk singer and guitarist, Erin Hogan, and fiddler Hannah O’Brien; and is set to premiere November 7th-9th in Providence, RI, Cambridge, MA; and Salem, MA.
