Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Barbara Strozzi – Star of Venice

Barbara Strozzi was famed throughout 17th century Venice for her glorious voice and artistry, ‘la virtuosissima cantatrice’ of the city state.

Yet this pupil of Cavalli and performer of Monteverdi was quietly creating a unique musical legacy. An illegitimate daughter, a single parent, who was treated by many as a courtesan and unable to secure a position in any court, she published seven volumes of increasingly ambitious music between 1655-1664.

Christian Curnyn conducts the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment and its Rising Stars in this special event launching Venus Unwrapped that places her mellifluous madrigals and sensuous, dramatic solo songs in their Venetian context, alongside Monteverdi’s spectacular Eighth Book of Madrigals with its delightful Il ballo delle ingrate, dramatising Venus and Cupid’s visit to the Underworld.