La Decima Musa
Or, The Tenth Muse
Elvet Methodist Church, Durham, DH1 3HL. Tickets (£1 - £10) can be purchased from the Durham University website, here.
Musica Antica Rotherhithe present music by Francesco Cavalli, Barbara Strozzi, Francesco Lucio, P.A. Ziani and Giovanni Legrenzi - much of it unheard for 370 years - from the golden age of Venetian opera.
Using surviving payment records from Venetian theatres c. 1651 - 1668, our ensemble will match that which you might have seen in an orchestra pit in Venice during the 1650s: two violins, bass violin, a harpsichord, pentagonal virginal, and up to three theorbos. Using a wealth of historical music treatises, many aspects of our playing, from continuo realisation to ornamentation, attempt to match the sound you might heard as closely as possible.
We recorded this programme as La Decima Musa: Music from the golden age of Venetian opera 1650-1660 in December 2025, thanks to the generosity of our friends and supporters, the Orbis Pictus Foundation, and Angel Early Music. This first tour of the programme was made possible by The Continuo Foundation.
As ever, a bar selling wine, soft drinks and Holy Trinity's famous home-infused gins will be open from 7pm.
This concert will finish at 9:10pm.
Programme
Cavalli: Sinfonia from Artemisia - Legrenzi Sarabande III op. 4 - Sinfonia from Artemisia, D minor
Cavalli: Mia Speranza from Elena
P.A Ziani: Rodope, Dove sei from Le Fortune di Rodope (modern premiere)
Cavalli: Torindo, ove s'in via from Orimonte
Legrenzi: Sarabande I from Op. 4, D major
Lucio: Donne belle e vezzose from Medoro
Cavalli: Se la giu negli abissi (cantata, modern premiere)
Anon: Solo guitar ciaccona in c major (modern premiere)
Cavalli: Dolce Frode from Eritrea
Cavalli: Ahi, questo e'l fin amano from Erismena
Strozzi: Eraclito Amoroso
Lucio: Da amorose passione from Medoro
Cavalli: Aure Tacete from Artemisia
Cavalli: Ecco Idolo mio from Elena
Musica Antica
Camilla Seale mezzo soprano
Tristram Cooke countertenor
Sophia Mücke violin
Andrew Taheny violin
Harry Buckoke bass violin
Peter Martin theorbo
Kristiina Watt theorbo
Jonatan Bougt theorbo
Luke Mitchell harpsichord
Oliver Doyle harpsichord