For those not in the know, The Secret Letter re-imagines a program of the same name performed by Cantus in the spring of 2025, weaving music together with excerpts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and others.

These interludes offer fleeting access to private moments of longing, devotion, and vulnerability, while the surrounding music expands and amplifies their emotional terrain, carrying forward their tension, tenderness, restraint, and release.

The Secret Letter bears witness and celebrates queer love that has always existed—persistent, imaginative, and worthy of song—and that even in secrecy, has found ways to speak, to sing, and to survive.

1. Yhinx
2. Canto a Eleggua
3. Love Is...
4. Marcus Aurelius to Marcus Fronto
5. Bésame Mucho
6. Excerpt from De Profundis
7. Le Jour M’étonne Et La Nuit Me Fait Peur...
8. On the Shoulders of Giants
9. Walt Whitman to Peter Doyle, August 21, 1869
10. Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes
11. Light Years to Lebanon
12. Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert, Summer 1852
13. Before Spring
14. Loucení
15. Blackbird
16. To the One I Once Was (Or Might Have Been)
17. We Kiss in a Shadow

This most poignant exploration, where Cantus delves into the depths of unspoken desires and hidden yearnings, where queer love has often been relegated to the shadows, obscured by the weight of societal expectations and prejudices, opens on the weighty ambiance of Yhinx, the harmonious Canto a Eleggua and the affecting Love Is... and then we are brought forth the spoken-word Marcus Aurelius to Marcus Fronto, the choral aspects within Bésame Mucho, the spoken-word Excerpt from De Profundis and both the resplendent Le Jour M’étonne Et La Nuit Me Fait Peur... and the layered On the Shoulders of Giants.

Along next is the spoken-word Walt Whitman to Peter Doyle, August 21, 1869, an impassioned Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes and the veritably glistening Light Years to Lebanon and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the spoken word Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert, Summer 1852, the dainty elegance of Before Spring, the sterner fare of Loucení and a simply heavenly Blackbird, the new set rounding out on the spoken word To the One I Once Was (Or Might Have Been), coming to a resounding close on the dutifully sculpted We Kiss in a Shadow.

Official Purchase Link

www.cantussings.org