A Musical Portrait of the Venetian Courtesan

UPDATE: Due to covid restrictions, this performance can no longer be held at the Doheny Mansion. We have instead moved to a private outdoor location in Pasadena.

The courtesan of Renaissance Venice held a unique social position, one that allowed her to circumvent many of the normal patriarchal restrictions on the lives of women in the sixteenth century. These restrictions included severe limits on women’s activities as composers and performers of music. In fact, the salons of the Venetian courtesans were among the liveliest and richest artistic centers of the city.

A Musical Portrait of the Venetian Courtesan attempts to recreate the soundworld of these spaces. The program includes newly-composed settings of verses by the famous courtesan Veronica Franco (whose life was the subject of Margaret Rosenthal’s seminal study The Honest Courtesan, in turn the inspiration for the 1998 film Dangerous Beauty), poetry set to arie named after (and possibly “signature tunes” of) well-known courtesans, and madrigals and motets, performed both as ensemble works and as virtuosic adaptions for solo voice.

The program will also explore the prominent role of two instruments in the musical activities of the courtesan: the lute and the arpicordo (the latter being a very particular type of Italian virginal), as well as the potentially broader role of instruments and instrumental music in the courtesan’s salon.

Tesserae is delighted to be joined by soprano Rebecca Myers and lutenist John Lenti for this program.

Ticketing information & Covid Safety

This event is free, but seating is extremely limited. If you are interested in attending, please reach out to alex@tesseraebaroque.org.  All attendees must be fully vaccinated and wear a mask during the performance.