Burning River Baroque will return to Cleveland Heights with the stunning program “On the Brink of Insanity: Portrayals of Women as Mad, Crazy, and Unhinged.” Dramatic musical works often contain scenes of overwhelming emotion in which male characters are frequently portrayed as being consumed by power. When women are overcome with emotion, however, male composers often attribute madness or craziness to them. Burning River Baroque will present a selection of works by George Frideric Handel, John Eccles, and Henry Purcell where women’s passions and emotional expressions render them as unhinged in the eyes of their creators. A set of Sephardic folk songs depicts several ways that female narrators describe various types of insanity. In a new move for the ensemble, the program will feature an original work by Malina Rauschenfels using texts from the Salem witch trial of Bridget Bishop. This fusion of new and old works will shed light on how the ways we describe those who are different from us can have very real and long-lasting effects on the community at large. Burning River Baroque will appear on Thursday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Stone Oven at 2267 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights where donations will be gratefully accepted. Performers include Malina Rauschenfels, soprano and baroque violin; Paula Maust, harpsichord; and Anna Steinhoff, baroque cello. More info can be found at www.burning-river-baroque.org.