Concert “Mystic Betrothal”

 

Renata Dubinskaitė - mezzo-soprano, programme author and artistic director
Saulė Šerytė - mezzo-soprano
Elisa La Marca - archiliutnia (Italy)
Chloe Lucas - violone (France)
Ieva Saliete - organ/harpsichord (Latvia)

 

During his famous trip to Italy, the ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Vladislav Vasa (1632-1648) met the composer Francesca Caccini. She created the opera “The Liberation of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina” (1625) on the occasion of his visit. It was the first opera, or dramma per musica, composed by a female composer in the history of music. Some have heard the names of composers Francesca Caccini or Barbara Strozzi, but most music professionals will be surprised to learn how many other talented female composers created and published their works in 16-17th century Italy. Their names are not even mentioned in the male-dominated narrative of music history. The patriarchal social structure of the time, which gave women only two choices (to marry or enter a monastery), meant that most talented women created and played music behind the closed walls of monasteries. However, even there the aim was to stifle the self-expression of the sisters allowing only Gregorian chant to be practised. The church hierarchs noticed the danger in the music, in which the composer nuns passionately conveyed their love for their divine betrothed - Christ. The sacred compositions of some nuns in their expressiveness and sensibility are in no way inferior to the works of secular authors about earthly love.

 

The programme’s title “Mystic Betrothal” is a metaphor for the eternal monastic vows. Solemn, wedding-like rites with symbolic rituals and music took place and still take place during a girl’s consecration to the life of a nun. The programme’s pieces unite into a single story about the path from earthly love to divine love, vocation to monasticism and consecration to the mystical betrothed Christ. The programme created by the early music singer Renata Dubinskaitė presents as many as fourteen Italian women composers of the 17th century (this is far from all the well-known female composers of that time), ten of whom were nuns. Most of the pieces will be played in Lithuania for the first time. To perform this programme, the singer assembled an international team of female early music performers, thereby restoring the tradition of music in women’s monasteries, where only the sisters themselves could play and sing.

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 The organizers of the “Mystic Betrothal” concert, presenting the listeners with the little-known musical creations of women from the Baroque era, also invite you to get accustomed to 16-17th century Western European art heritage in the exhibition “Lviv Welcomes Vilnius. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery”.

 

At the end of the event, listeners are kindly invited to visit the exhibition.

 

Please do not bring preschool children to the concert. We invite families with preschool children to educational activities at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

Before the concert, on the 3rd of March, at 5 p.m., the author of the programme invites you to a lecture about 17th-century Italian female composers. You will have the opportunity to get acknowledged with their lives and works in more detail.
 Lecture recording

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Lyrics
Event programme

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Event partner - “Tempo primo”

 

The International Marco Scacchi Early Music Festival is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.