Compositions by Marcantonio Cavazzoni, Giovanni Felice Sances, Bartolomeo Barbarino, Domenico Mazzocchi, Rocco Rodio, Mario Agatea, Sigismondo d'India, Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Barbara Strozzi, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Domenico Obizzi
Love is the protagonist of this concert, Love that takes your breath away through all the emotions it is capable of evoking. Proserpina's angry and fatal love that goes up from the underworld to seek her stern and traitor Pluto (Sances). The insatiable and libertine love of a young man who simultaneously enjoys the graces of Clori, Armilla and Filli (Barbarino). The enemy, perfidious and cruel Love that makes life a Hell (Mazzocchi). The one that asks for pity, the pity demanded by those who promise eternal fidelity, the sweet one of those who wait to wither like a flower never picked (Of India). Then there is the melancholic love typical of the painful notes of the greatest female composer of the Baroque (Strozzi) and then, in conclusion, the nice erotic game of Fileno and Clori where kisses easily turn into greedy sensual bites (Obizzi). All this in a continuous alternation of joy and pain where even the latter, a constant theme of seventeenth-century poetic literature, in its melancholy basking is ultimately transformed into a very subtle pleasure. In support of the whole repertoire, the harpsichord, the main instrument of the Italian Baroque, also creator, thanks to the art of the composers who wrote for it, of a great evocative capacity.
Francesca Boncompagni
Born in Arezzo in 1984 and a violinist by training, she studied singing with Donatella Debolini, Alessio Tosi, Fulvio Bettini and Manuela Custer. In 2007 you participated in the “Le Jardin des Voix” Academy held by William Christie; in 2008 you won the "Francesco Provenzale" International Baroque Singing Competition in Naples. Active mainly in the Baroque and classical repertoire, she has sung in some of the most important theaters and concert halls in the world, including Salle Pleyel in Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Felsenreitschule in Salzburg, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Tonhalle in Zurich , Fundacion Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Lutoslawski Hall in Warsaw, Barbican Center, Buckingham Palace and Royal Albert Hall in London etc. He has collaborated with ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, Collegium Vocale Gent, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Italian Concerto, Mediterranean Chapel, Byzantine Academy, Modo Antiquo and La Fonte Musica, with conductors such as Dantone, Alessandrini, Agnew, Montanari, Moretto, Capuano, García Alarcon, Corti, Quarta, Cera, Pasotti, Herreweghe, Christie, Gardiner and Brüggen. He has recorded for Pentatone, Phi, Clc, Alpha, Arcana, Glossa, Virgin Classics, Brilliant Classics, France Musique, Stradivarius, Soli Deo Gloria and Sony Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. Quarta, Cera, Pasotti, Herreweghe, Christie, Gardiner and Brüggen. He has recorded for Pentatone, Phi, Clc, Alpha, Arcana, Glossa, Virgin Classics, Brilliant Classics, France Musique, Stradivarius, Soli Deo Gloria and Sony Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. Quarta, Cera, Pasotti, Herreweghe, Christie, Gardiner and Brüggen. He has recorded for Pentatone, Phi, Clc, Alpha, Arcana, Glossa, Virgin Classics, Brilliant Classics, France Musique, Stradivarius, Soli Deo Gloria and Sony Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.
Marco Mencoboni
Born in Macerata in 1961, he has treated music as a soloist, conductor, record producer, film producer, actor and writer. He studied organ with Umberto Pineschi in Pesaro and Bologna, graduating in 1985. In 1984 he began studying the harpsichord at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam at the invitation of Ton Koopman, and then moved in 1987 to the class of Gustav Leonhardt with whom he finished his studies in 1990. Since 2009 he has been studying instrumental polyphony with Diego Fratelli in Lecce. The need and desire to create a vocal ensemble arose from the rediscovery, in 1993, of the ancient practice of Cantar Lontano, at the time known only by musicologists but never put into practice. Some of his stories on music have been published by FMR magazine and the Metropolitan Museum of New York uses his recordings for the soundtrack of some exhibition rooms. He studied conducting with Gilberto Serembe and Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli and made his debut as Opera director in 2020 conducting Gioachino Rossini's Otello at the Manoel Theater in Malta. Since 2017 he has been in charge of the Monteverdi Project for the Maltese government with the aim of teaching young singers the Italian vocal performance practice. Since 2013 he has collaborated as a teacher at the Rossiniana Academy of Alberto Zedda at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. For the Early Music Festival in Utrecht he created a series of twenty-two video tutorials on the peculiarities of early music.
