Festival de Bach à Bacchus - Concert Solistes de Cappella Mediterranea et Mariana Flores "Muse e Sirene"

This programme highlights four major 17th-century composers: Francesca Caccini, Margarita Cozzolani, Barbara Strozzi and Antonia Bembo. Their works are part of the development of accompanied monody and the expressive language typical of the early Seicento, where musical rhetoric, attention to text and the search for affetti occupy a central place. The light instrumentation (soprano, two lutes and viola da gamba) is characteristic of domestic, conventual and court practices. It highlights the vocal line as the main vehicle of expression, supported by a supple, nuanced basso continuo. Set in a variety of contexts - the Medici court, the Milanese cloister, the Venetian academies and the French court - this programme highlights the essential contribution made by these female composers to Baroque aesthetics and to the affirmation of female creative authority within the European musical networks of the seventeenth century.