Sete

In the seventeenth century, the lover and the saint speak to each other: both believe, adore, and live in longing, upwards and towards the other.

Monteverdi’s Sì dolce recounts, with an uneasy pride, the lover’s tormented journey towards the beloved, in which he loses even himself just to come one step closer to her.

Brazen and mocking, Merula’s lover swears never to loosen the «caro laccio», just as Bononcini’s Baptist blesses and adores the pains «che dan lustro a la sua fè».

At the heart of it all is Prince Desire: tender in Cesti’s music, grotesque in Marini’s toothless old woman, vengeful in Frescobaldi, and absurdly self-satisfied in Lambert, who would die of pleasure if only he were happier.

Ferrari’s chaconne brings the programme to a close. But what if dying of love were an obstinate dance?