Tonight's Top Stop: Folger Consort

Map It:  Capitol South 

THE FOLGER CONSORT IS CELBRATING CHRISTMAS just like King Henry VIII did back in the day. (Puffy sleeves and tight-tights are optional; saying "Ye olde" before everything, however, is absolutely necessary.) Renaissance winds and a male vocal quartet will join Consort mainstays Robert Eisenstein (violin, viol, recorder) and Christopher Kendall (lute, vihuela, Renaissance guitar, theorbo) to perform traditional ballads and carols, along with music by chapel master William Cornysh and, yes, ye olde King Henry.

See, not only was King Henry VIII (1491-1547) excellent at shooting dice, jousting, executing ex-wives and separating the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, he also liked to get down on his harp, kicking out original compositions such as "Pastyme With Good Company (The Kynges Ballade)" and "We Will Rock You." Well, maybe that last one was by Queen, but the King mos def penned "Pastyme," as well as "Green Groweth the Holly" and many more. He probably didn't write the all-time classic jammy "Greensleeves," but it's often attributed to him because, well, he was the King.

Ye olde Hank supposedly composed "Greensleeves," which is the title of tonight's program, because he was sad that his future wife Anne Boleyn allegedly rebuffed his initial advances with two snaps up and a sassy shout of "No scrubs!" (Maybe that's one reason why Henry eventually had her head chopped off.)

Back to the Folger Consort show: A pre-concert discussion starts at 7 p.m.; the music's at 7:30 p.m., performed in the Folger's lovely Elizabethan Theatre, which is decked out in seasonal favors. If you can't make tonight's gig, you have three more opportunities; click here for a schedule.

» Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE; 7 p.m., $40; 202-544-7077. (Capitol South)

Painting courtesy the British Museum via TudorHistory.org

» GET MORE TOP STOPS for tonight here.