16:30
Mafra
La Serenissima (Lecture-Visit)
Meeting Point: "The Invention of the Future" Gallery, National Museum of Music, 29/11, 4:30 PM
Margit Übellacker, presenter
Today little known to the general public, the psaltery was for centuries present in various European musical traditions, reaching its peak during the 18th century, particularly in Italy, Germany and Austria. It also played a role in Portuguese musical life, in both sacred and secular settings, until the late 1700s.
La Serenissima proposes the rediscovery of this instrument through the music of Venice, a vibrant cultural centre of Baroque Europe, where opera flourished with Monteverdi and Cavalli and instrumental music thrived with Vivaldi, within the unique context created by churches, theatres and the famous ospedali.
The programme features works by Vivaldi, Caldara and Marcello, in which the psaltery appears both as a solo instrument and as part of the basso continuo alongside the contralto voice. Moving between chamber cantata lyricism, sacred music intensity and instrumental vitality, the concert revisits this heritage and restores to contemporary audiences the sound of an instrument once widely familiar.
Following this lecture-visit at 4:30 PM, a concert will take place at 5:30 PM (separate tickets required).
