Blue Heron Celebrates Italian Madrigals with “Tasso and Wert"

Blue Heron continues its multi-year exploration of the Italian madrigal with “Tasso & Wert,” a new program featuring dramatic scenes and lyrics by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso (1544-95) set to music by the Flemish composer Giaches de Wert (1535-96) and others. Taking place on Saturday, March 23 at 8pm at First Church in Cambridge, the performance also includes a pre-concert talk by expert music historian Emiliano Ricciardi at 7pm, who will discuss how Tasso’s poetry shaped the literary landscape of the time, its influence extending also to the visual arts and music. At 7:30pm, Blue Heron welcomes the Handel and Haydn Society Youth Choruses Chorus of Tenors and Basses, Dr. Kevin McDonald, conductor, for a special pre-concert performance. Both pre-concert events are free to ticket-holders.

Ricciardi also leads a “Spotlight Session” on February 28 on Zoom on the musical reception of Tasso’s poetry, exploring the cultural and social conditions that made Tasso’s poetry so influential.

Torquato Tasso was arguably the most prominent poet of late sixteenth-century Italy. His poetry—which includes his magnum opus, the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, as well as a substantial collection of lyric poems and the pastoral play Aminta—shaped the literary landscape of the time, its influence extending also to the visual arts and music. Late madrigal composers were especially fond of Tasso’s poetry, producing hundreds of settings, some of which stand out for their innovative musical features.

Tasso and Giaches de Wert, who certainly knew each other and may have been friends, were born about a decade apart, moved in the same circles in northern Italian courts, and were leading figures in the aesthetic development of poetic and musical drama that would eventually lead to the emergence of opera. Both were inspired by one of the great performers of the age, the Italian singer and harpist Laura Peverara (or Peperara), a member of Ferrara’s famous concerto delle donne.

“I’m thrilled to put together this entirely new program focused on the poetry and music of two of

16th-century Italy’s most wonderful creators, building on the intensive work Blue Heron has already done on Italian declamation and rhetoric in earlier repertoire,” said Blue Heron’s artistic director, Scott Metcalfe. “And we couldn’t be more delighted that Blue Heron’s singers will be joined once again by two most compelling speaker/actors, Alessandro Quarta from Rome (in Italian) and Jade Guerra from Boston (in English).”

A feast for lovers of poetry and music, the program will also include madrigals by Adrian Willaert, Cipriano de Rore, and the astonishing Luca Marenzio.

Concert and Event Calendar Listings:

Blue Heron: Tasso & Wert

Saturday, March 23, 2024, 8:00 PM

First Church in Cambridge, Congregational (11 Garden Street, Cambridge)

Tickets: $10-$87

https://www.blueheron.org/concerts/season25/tasso-wert/

Blue Heron’s multi-season exploration of the Italian madrigal continues with a new program featuring settings of dramatic scenes by Torquato Tasso, with music by the great Giaches de Wert and others, and dramatic recitation by speakers Alessandro Quarta (in Italian) and Jade Guerra (in English). A feast for lovers of poetry and music, the program will also include madrigals by Adrian Willaert, Cipriano de Rore, and the astonishing Luca Marenzio.

Torquato Tasso (1544–95) was arguably the most prominent poet of late sixteenth-century Italy. His poetry shaped the literary landscape of the time, its influence extending also to the visual arts and music. Late madrigal composers were especially fond of Tasso’s poetry, producing hundreds of settings. Free pre-concert talk by Emiliano Ricciardi (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) at 7:00 pm.

At 7:30pm, Blue Heron welcomes the Handel and Haydn Society Youth Choruses Chorus of Tenors and Basses, Dr. Kevin McDonald, conductor, for a special pre-concert performance, free to ticket-holders.

Spotlight Session with Emiliano Ricciardi: Torquato Tasso & the Italian madrigal

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 7:00 pm, Online via Zoom

Tickets: $10-$25

https://www.blueheron.org/concerts/spotlight-sessions/ricciardi/

In this talk, music historian Emiliano Ricciardi explores the musical reception of Tasso’s poetry, discussing the cultural and social conditions that made Tasso’s poetry so influential and examining how composers reacted musically to his work. Emiliano Ricciardi is Associate Professor of Music History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, which he completed in 2013 with the support of an ACLS/Mellon fellowship, and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge. In 2015 he was a Lauro de Bosis postdoctoral fellow in the history of Italian civilization at Harvard University. His main research area is the late Italian madrigal, with an emphasis on the settings of Torquato Tasso’s poetry.