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UMass To Host Virtual Concert by Renowned Vocal Ensemble La Compagnia del Madrigale
On Saturday, May 15, the UMass Amherst department of music and dance will host a virtual concert by La Compagnia del Madrigale, one of the world’s foremost madrigal ensembles. The concert, titled “Tasso at Ferrara,” will take place on the department’s YouTube channel at 2 p.m., and is free and open to the public. The concert was originally scheduled to take place in April 2020 as part of the Tasso and Music Festival, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
The music on the program highlights the work of late-Renaissance composers associated with the court of Ferrara, Italy, where the great Italian poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) spent much of his career. The music has been made available through the Tasso in Music Projectled by Professor of Music History Emiliano Ricciardi. Funded by a $260,000 Scholarly Editions and Translations Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Tasso in Music Project established the first complete critical edition of the early modern musical settings of the poetry of Torquato Tasso. The project has recently received Honorable Mention for the Digital Innovation Prize of the Renaissance Society of America.
At the May 15 concert, La Compagnia del Madrigale will present musical settings of Tasso’s “Rime” and “Gerusalemme liberate” by some of the most prominent composers associated with the court of Ferrara, including Agostini, Gesualdo, Luzzaschi, Virchi and Wert. The ensemble, which consists of sopranos Rossana Bertini and Francesca Cassinari; contralto Elena Carzaniga; tenors Giuseppe Maletto and Raffaele Giordani, and bass Matteo Bellotto, is widely viewed as one of the preeminent interpreters of Italian madrigal music performing today. Their recordings, published by Glossa, have received numerous awards, including the prestigious “Gramophone Editor's Choice” and the “Diapason d'Or.” More information about the ensemble may be found at http://www.lacompagniadelmadrigale.com/en/home-en/.