Athens Baroque Festival 2023

Athens Baroque Festival 2023

THEATRE CHOROS

September 29 - October 02 2023

Friday, September 29, 21:00
VITA SEGRETA, MUSICA SEGRETA
music for unconventional women

17th century, Adriana Basile - the Siren of Posillipo. Laura Peverara, Anna Guarini and Livia D'Arco, the famous Concerto delle Donne. The House of Medici, the D'Este and Gonzaga Courts, the Accademia degli Unisoni.
The Canto Soave ensemble seeks the secrets of talented women who dared to live and create, often against the social norms of their era, through surviving letters, diaries and poems.
The performance Vita Segreta, Musica Segreta explores their unseen lives, focusing on the vocal music written for the famous singers and the great female vocal ensembles that entertained the nobility at the courts of Florence, Ferrara, Mantua and Venice.
The programme includes arias, duets and trios by L. Luzzaschi, C. Monteverdi, L. Rossi as well as female composers F. Caccini and B. Strozzi.

Canto Soave
Natassa Agelopoulou, soprano
Maira Milolidaki, soprano
Effi Minakouli. mezzo soprano / theorbo
Katerina Ktona, harpsichord

https://youtu.be/r6DozMX8Ozg

Saturday September 30, 21:00
CANTANDO CON VIHUELA DE MANO
the Spanish Renaissance and the Sephardic tradition
meet the contemporary singing

The 16th century Spanish composer Luis de Milán, the contemporary American composer & lutenist Lee Santana, the Vihuela, the Sephardic tradition and the modern female soprano voice, are the inspiration materials of this unique musical performance.
The vihuela - a traditional Spanish instrument - was particularly popular in 15th and 16th century in Spain and particularly beloved among Spanish Jews. Luis de Milán was the virtuoso of this instrument with his famous method Libro de musica de vihuela de mano - El Maestro (Valencia, 1536).
Using this instrument, Lee Santana has written music for a selection of Sephardic folk poems from Thessaloniki written in Ladino, inspired by Luis de Milán and presenting - at the same time - his own compositional aspect with clear references to jazz.

Maria Palaska, soprano / conception / selection of poems
Lee Santana, vihuela / composition 

https://youtu.be/nQhv35iT030

Sunday October 1, 21:00 
LA DIRINDINA - THE APPRENTICE SINGER
a comic opera in two parts

Music: Domenico Scarlatti
Libretto: Girolamo Gigli
Direction / role teaching / set and costume design / translation / overdubbing: Grigorios Pyrialakos
Musical preparation: Phoivos Filkas
Dirindina: Maria Svarna
Don Carissimo: Grigorios Pyrialakos
Liscione: Dimitris Grigoris Kalogiannis

Ensemble Diverse and Bizarre:
Anastasia Miliori, baroque violin
Kira Saplachidou, transverse flute
Nicoleta Chatzopoulou, viola da gamba
Sevastianos Motorinos, harpsichord

https://youtu.be/mQw4pct1aLM
https://youtu.be/YSi6_1_22WI

Monday October 2, 21:00 
OBLIGATO
music for transverse flute & harpsichord around J.S.Bach

It is not a common thing, that in 18th century musical compositions a keyboard instrument would be treated as equal to a melodic instrument. However, J.S.Bach managed to highlight in the most unique way, both the harpsichord and the transverse flute, through his sonatas. Following consequently this compositional style, the composers J.J.Quantz and J.A.Scheibe transcribed two unique trio- sonatas specifically for this particular combination of instruments.

ELIKΩΝ Ensemble
Antigoni Tsalla, transverse flute
Alexis Mastichiadis, harpsichord

https://youtu.be/Hc0SgDYYIRg
https://youtu.be/4CoBThZYrSg