Dalla sinagoga al palazzo

Sabbioneta, Ancient Theater

Saturday 13 May 2023, 9 pm

In collaboration with the Municipality of Sabbioneta

Concert in memory of Antonella Volta

Dalla sinagoga al Palazzo

Music by Salomone Rossi, Claudio Monteverdi and Luzzasco Luzzaschi

Profeti della quinta

Doron Schleifer and David Feldman, Countertenors

Lior Leibovici and Jacob Lawrence, Tenors

Elam Rotem, Bass and musical direction

Rui Staehelin, Theorbo

The program brings together two composers who are rarely presented side by side. Claudio Monteverdi is best known for his dramatic music, regarded today as the origin of opera, while Salomone Rossi is known, if nothing else, as a Jewish musician who composed an intriguing collection of Jewish liturgical music. Yet there are strong ties and similarities between the two. They were almost the same age and both served for many years at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, one of the most important musical centers in Europe. Both composed a large number of madrigals, using texts by the poets themselves, in which they explored the expression of poetry in music. Both progressed with time and musical taste and pioneered the "new" style of music with figured bass. Furthermore, they had to know each other personally and make music together: Rossi played at court (at the head of a selected instrumental group which included musicians from Casalmaggiore), where Monteverdi was the "Master of music", and the two even collaborated on the composition of an "Intermedio" for the Gonzagas. Solomon's sister, known as "Madama Europa," was a singer who performed in operaThe Ariadneby Monteverdi and probably also in his other works. The program weaves passionate madrigals and playful duets with dignified Jewish prayers, uniting the voices of Rossi and Monteverdi with that of Luzzasco Luzzaschi from Ferrara, whose name, at the end of the sixteenth century, had acquired "so much reputation that anyone who claims to be honored declares himself his imitator ”.