Musica Antica Rotherhithe

03/11/2024

Our home venue in Rotherhithe was full to the brim for our Florentine soundscape last week! We were so sorry to lose to laryngitis and hugely grateful to for stepping in at the last minute. We’ll be returning to the Renaissance (hopefully with Emma-Lisa!) with a Venetian programme in 2025, but before then we have one more concert this year: scenes from the earliest operas, some lovely madrigals by Marenzio, and Monteverdi’s Ballo dell’Ingrate on 30th November. Tickets and further details on our website! These beautiful photos were taken at our concert last week by . |

20/10/2024

One week to go! A beautiful programme (if we say so ourselves).

Musica Antica Rotherhithe and lutenist-singer Emma-Lisa Roux present a soundscape of Florence during one of the most turbulent points in its history.

05/10/2024

What says halloween more than an encounter with Death itself! Our next concert presents a soundscape of Florence at the end of the fifteenth century through the eyes and ears of a young woman called Marietta, who was gifted a book of songs - all of them beautiful, but some absolutely filthy - not long after the city had recovered from near destruction at the hands of the invading French army, a plague, and the burning of much of its secular artistic heritage in Girolamo Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities.

We’ll be performing music she might have heard at church, in the streets - including a the ‘Captain of Death’ sung by musicians dressed as skeletons in the dead of night on the last night of carnival - and which she might have sung herself and danced to at home. To do that as faithfully as possible, we are delighted to be joined by Emma-Lisa Roux, who will sing songs from Marietta’s book as she might have over 500 years ago: self-accompanied on the lute. We’ll be at Holy Trinity Rotherhithe on 27 October, from 7:30-9:15. Tickets are £2-10, and there’ll be a gin cocktail bar with lots of interesting fruit spirits to take home as usual! Tickets snd a full programme can be found on our website, musicaantica.org.uk. |

16/09/2024

A wonderfully atmospheric and full Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe for our concert celebrating the life and music of Antonia Bembo on Saturday!

We’ll be going 200 years further back in time for our next concert, a soundscape of Florence during the early life of Marietta Pugi, who was gifted a book of (often quite filthy) songs sometime between 1500-1510. You can find further details and tickets on our website, or here: Il Gran Capitano della Morte, or Death's Great Captain

16/09/2024

A little clip from our rehearsal ahead of Saturday’s concert - the adagio from Isabella Leonarda’s Sonata Undecima.

25/08/2024

Our next concert is fast approaching - music by Antonia Bembo (c. 1640 - 1720) and her contemporaries woven into a retelling of her life. Tickets from as little as £2, as ever, and our bar will be open from 7pm. More details and tickets available on our website, musicaantica.org.uk

31/07/2024

We couldn’t have asked for better weather or more beautiful surrounds for our performance of Charpentier’s pastoreletta Amor Vince Ogni Cosa (Love Conquers All) last Sunday! It was the Garden’s first foray into Early Music, and we hope it won’t be the last.

We’ll be returning to Rotherhithe on 14th September for a retelling of the life of Antonia Bembo through her music, and that of her teacher Cavalli, friend (and lover?) Francesco Corbetta, and contemporary Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. Tickets (£2-£10) via our website!

09/07/2024

09/07/2024

“The most fun I’ve ever had at a concert” from one audience member and “I had to stop reading the text because it was spoiling the purity of the Renaissance for me” from another neatly sums up the concert of madrigal comedies we gave last weekend! The contrast between Striggio’s gorgeous music and salacious text is far from unusual, but we were very glad to be able to prepare an airing of his neglected Cicalamento delle Donne al Bucato (The Gossip of the Women at the Well), which will shortly be followed by a new edition, free to download on our website, CPDL and IMSLP. For our next concert on 28th July we’ll be heading up the River to for more madrigals and Charpentier’s Amor Vince Ogni Cosa, and after that we’ll be telling the dramatic story of the life of Antonia Bembo through her music and that of Francesco Corbetta, Francesco Cavalli and Elisabeth Jacquet della Guerre in Rotherhithe. Tickets are available, as ever, from our website - link in bio! |

28/06/2024

Just over a week to go!

Musica Antica Rotherhithe present three raucous madrigal comedies by Alessandro Striggio and Adriano Banchieri.

17/06/2024

We had a wonderful time kicking off our 2024 Season on Saturday, with Charpentier’s comedy Les Plaisirs de Versailles! Wonderful singing from our very own God of Chocolate Alex J Pratley, Conversation Milly Atkinson, La Musique herself Macilla Seale, and some gorgeous Marais and de Machy from Sarah Small. We’ve three more comedies hot on Charpentier’s tail - this time from 16th Century Italy and substantially more risqué(!) - to present on 6th July, performed by our full compliment of singers: La Caccia, or The Chase. Tickets are £2-£10 as ever, and if the weather’s like it is today, our interval will be a mini garden party, and a chance to try our summery fruit gins in cocktail form. Do visit our website for tickets, or send us a message if you would like to reserve seats!

02/05/2024

A different kind of flyering on day! Beautiful music by Lambert, Charpentier, Marais and a number of rarely-heard composers from the end of the seventeenth century, and all for no more than £10! Our lovely gins and cake will also be available beforehand and during the interval. Tickets via our website musicaantica.org.uk

15/04/2024

We had a brilliant time dusting off our production (minus the set - the room didn’t need it!) of the one-act 17th century comedy Lo Spedale (The Hospital) on Friday! Thanks to a generous supporter tickets for the evening were sold entirely in aid of the Master’s Fund for medical students in financial difficulty. We’d love to do it again, so if you’re working for a festival or theatre looking for something unusual but also beautiful, funny and accessible, do let us know!

21/03/2024

Happy ! As always, we’re celebrating by announcing this year’s concerts at our home of Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe: five programmes covering three centuries of music, from fifteenth century Florence to eighteenth century Paris. You can find full programmes and purchases tickets via our website:

REMA - EEMN Early Music Day

Five programmes of music from the fifteenth - eighteenth centuries performed in the beautiful, intimate church of Holy Trinity, Rotherhithe.

18/03/2024

It was a huge privilege to be able to bring the Music of Nicholas Lanier back to the Queen’s House, Greenwich on Saturday - a stone’s throw from where he lived and one of the places where he most likely performed for Charles I)! Next up is a revival of our production of Lo Spedale for The Worshipful Company of Apothecaries, but we’ll be announcing our full programme of public, £10 a ticket concerts taking place in Rotherhithe this year on the ’s Early Music Day, 21st March. Watch this space! |