Characters, masks and different languages in Italy of the Cinquecento

Dramatodia
Francesca Santi, Maria Dalia Albertini, soprano and reciting
Andres Montilla Acurero, alto and reciting
Alberto Allegrezza, Riccardo Pisani, tenor and reciting
Niccolò Roda, baritone and reciting
Guglielmo Buonsanti, basse and reciting
Pietro Modesti, cornetto and reciting
Marco Muzzati, percussions and reciting
Michele Vannelli, harspichord

Alberto Allegrezza, stage director, musical director and costumes

Full tickets € 15
Two people booked together € 25
Reduced tickets € 8 (students of music schools, young adults up to 30 years of age,  adults over 65)

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Programme

Veneziani
Giulio Cesare Croce (San Giovanni in Persiceto, 1550 – Bologna 1609)
Mascherata di Pantaloni innamorati

Giulio Cesare Croce
Dialogo e barzellette nuove date in luce da Scatolino

Francesco Bonardo (XVI sec.)
Se la bellezza

Orazio Vecchi (Modena, 1550 – ivi, 1605)
No v’acorzè, Madonna
Tich Toch Zanni

Marco Facoli (Venezia?, 1540 ca. – ?, 1585)
Balletto della Commedia nova

Bergamaschi
Filippo Azzaiolo (Bologna, XVI secolo)
Chi vuol vegnir a Bergam al mercà*

Manoli Blessi (Antonio Molino detto il Burchiella) (Venezia , 1498 ca – ivi, dopo il 1572)
Dialogo piacevole de Manoli ditto con un Facchino

Padovani
Giovanni Croce (Chioggia, 1557 – Venezia, 1609)
Canzon da contadini

Orazio Vecchi
Sapete voi bifolci. Villotta 

Giorgio Mainerio (Parma, 1535 – Aquileia, 1582)
L’Arbuscello, ballo furlano

Tedeschi
Anonimo (XVI sec.)
Moresca alla svizzera 

Giulio Cesare Croce
Todeschi fuggiti da loro paesi per sospetto della guerra

Anonimo (XVI sec.)
Trinc e got

Ghirardo da Panico Bolognese (Bologna, XVI sec.)
Patrone, belle patrone

Giorgio Mainerio
Ungaresca

Schiavoni e Greci
Andrea Gabrieli (Venezia, 1510 – ivi, 1585)
Como viver mil posso

Annibale Padovano (Padova, 1527 – Graz, 1575)
Benedetta el gregaria
O vui greghette belle. Dialogo a 8 voci

Jacques de Wert
Tis pyri pyr edamasse. Villanella greca

Cingari egiziani
Giandomenico da Nola (Nola, 1510-20 ca. – Napoli, 1592)
Cingari simo

Alfonso Tosi padovano (Padova, XVI sec.)
Cingaresca astrologica

Giorgio Mainerio
Schiarazzula marazzula

Turchi
Teodoro Riccio (Brescia, 1540 ca. – Ansbach, 1603 ca.)
Ble ble ble ble chiel chiel

Mori
Massimo Troiano (Napoli, XVI sec. – Baviera, 1570)
Fa lan fan fon fan. Moresca

Grammatio Metallo (Bisaccia, 1540 ca. – Roma?, 1615)
Ala lappia camocan. Moresca

Napolitani
Antonio Valente (1520 ca. – Napoli 1601)
Gaillarda napoletana

Anonimo (XVI sec.)
Tu core mio

Grammatio Metallo
Madonna tu me pari tanto brutta

Adrian Willaert (Bruges, 1490 – Venezia, 1562)
Vecchie letrose

Massimo Troiano
Battaglia della Gatta e della Cornacchia

Anonimo (XVI sec.)
Quess’occhi e quissa bocca

Girolamo Conversi (Correggio, XVI Sec.)
Deh, porgini ssa mano

Anonimo (XVI sec.)
In Toledo una donzella

Spagnoli
Jacques de Wert
De que sirve ojos morenos. Villanella spagnola

Pietro Vinci (Nicosia, 1535 – ivi, 1584)
Es tan grave mi dolor

Antonio Il Verso (Piazza Armerina, 1560 – Palermo, 1621)
Cancion spagnola*

Anonimo
Pavana di Spagna

Siciliani
Giulio Cesare Croce
Ottave alla siciliana

Giadomenico Martoretta (Mileto, 1515 – ?, dopo il 1566)
La bella donna chi lu pettu m’ardi

Ebrei
Ghirardo da Panico Bolognese
Adonai con voi. Ebraica*

Giulio Cesare Croce
Rissa tremenda fra Mardochai e Badanai

Adriano Banchieri (Bologna, 1568 – ivi, 1634)
Samuel, Samuel. Mascherata di Ebrei

Bolognesi
Adriano Banchieri
Strazz e ciavatt. Intermezzo di Solfanari

Adriano Banchieri
Tre Graziani. Spagnoletto

Giulio Cesare Croce
Segreti di medicina mirabilissimi

Epilogo
Orazio Vecchi Diversi linguaggi a 9

*parts reconstructed by Michele Vannelli

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Venetians, Bergamaschi, Bolognese, Germans, Moors, Neapolitans, Spaniards, Egyptian Gypsies, Turks, Jews… the musical and theatrical world of the sixteenth century is populated by figures and characters of different origins who meet and coexist in an articulated and rich ethnical kaleidoscope, proving the fact that immigration and emigration have always been present in European history. Italy, due to its geographical position, its being divided into a multitude of local states, its being partly subject to the domination of other European powers, has always been a particularly crowded crossroads of different peoples and therefore of cultures, traditions and above all, different languages.
Music also represented a privileged point of observation of this colorful theory of characters: in this era the Italian musical lexicon was enriched with terms such as moresca, passacaglia, allemande, tedescha, aria from Florence, tenor from Naples, bergamasca, chaconne, which testify to the assimilation of elements from different cultures. If all this is true for musical culture, the richness that came from the “exotic” and the “foreign” was admirably exploited by all those professional actors who operated within the dramaturgical and organizational structures of what will be defined later “commedia dell’arte”. Not only among the comic “types” were men and women of different social backgrounds and of different nationalities represented in order to make the most of the comic effect of the different languages, of some picturesque elements of a certain culture or of certain vices or weaknesses associated with a certain people (Pantalone was Venetian, Doctor Graziano was from Bologna, the Captain could have been Spanish, Neapolitan or German, the servants from Bergamo, etc…), but often, to further enliven the plots and comic “jokes”, non-European characters could enter such as Jews, Turks, Stratiots (Istrians, Dalmatians, Greeks or Albanians), Indians; moreover, the plays could be set in remote and exotic places. The program is divided into thirteen sections corresponding to as many “nations” honored and sometimes mocked by the lively pen of poets and composers such as Giulio Cesare Croce, Antonio Molino, Filippo Azzaiolo, Andrea Gabrieli, Massimo Troiano, Jaques de Wert. In music, this babel of ethnic groups has been the basis of many multilingual polyphonic experiments of which the piece that concludes the program is perhaps the most extroardinary example: a virtuoso contrapuntal tour de force made for nine voices by Orazio Vecchi on a pre-existing madrigal for five voices by Luca Marenzio in which each part gives voice to a different character and a different language almost to recreate the whole of “El gran teatro del mundo” in a single musical scene.