This Concerto delle donne presents three remarkable composers whose art flourished despite the barriers imposed on their status in Renaissance and Baroque societies.

The programme opens with madrigals by Maddalena Casulana (1544-1590), the first woman to have her music published, works of impressive textual sensitivity and bold harmonic colouring. She is followed by Francesca Caccini (1587-1640), a multifaceted court musician and the earliest known female opera composer, with canzonettas and arias whose lyrical fluidity reveals her mastery of expressive nuance. This journey culminates with one of the most prolific Venetian composers of vocal music of the 17th century, Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), whose laments and secular cantatas express an emotional depth

and rhetorical power unparalleled in her generation.

Raquel Alão (soprano), Ana Ferro (mezzo-soprano), Helena Raposo (theorbo), Marta Vicente (violone) and Sérgio Silva (positive organ) will perform these works with the intimacy and clarity of a continuo ensemble faithful to its era.

Three women who refused to be silenced. Three voices that can be heard once again. A concert in which history reverberates in the present.

Maddalena Casulana
Stavasi il mio bel sol – A tre voci
Morte te chiamo – Il secondo Libro de Madrigali a quattro voci, n.º6

Francesca Caccini
S’io men vò – Il primo Libro delle musiche a uma e due você
Che t’ho fatt’io – Il primo Libro delle musiche a uma e due voci
Lasciatemi qui solo – Il primo Libro delle musiche a una e due voci

Barbara Strozzi
Lagrime mie, Lamento – Diporte di Euterpe, overo Cantate & Ariette a Voce Sola, Opus 7
Che si può fare – Arie di Barbara Strozzi consacrate All’Altezza Serenissima di Madama Sofia, Opus 8
Al Battitor di Bronzo della sua crudelíssima Dama (Quante volte) - Il primo libro di madrigal