Musica Antica Rotherhithe

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! |

21/01/2024

Standing (and lying) room only for Italian Fire last night, with wonderful singing from Tristram Cooke, Macilla Seale, Milly Atkinson and Joachim Sabbat and playing from our wonderful band - Maxim Del Mar, May Robertson, Susanna Ward, Sarah Small and Peter Martin. Our next concert Monteverdi & Lanier at the Queen's House, Greenwich is already sold out, but we’ll be announcing our 2024-5 season on 21st March!

21/12/2023

Flyering day today for Italian Fire next month! Last year we were performing Cavalli’s Requiem, but this year it’s the turn of the composers of the generation(s) after him, with a selection of gorgeous arias sung by Macilla Seale and Tristram Gabriel Frederick Cooke, and two cantatas, one by Alessandro Scarlatti, and the other by Caresana. Tickets from as little as £2, as ever!

30/10/2023

We had a wonderful full house for Amor Vince Ogni Cosa: Love Conquers All on Saturday! We've one more concert this season, Italian Fire on 20th January - in the meantime we'll be planning the launch of our 2024-5 season!

26/09/2023

We’re so proud of our wonderful Mezzo Soprano Camilla Seale, who won 3rd prize in the Concours International de Chant Baroque on Sunday! If you’ve yet to get tickets to hear her sing Handel: Aminta e Fillide with us on Saturday, there are still a few tickets left!

Chers mélomanes,

Nous sommes heureux de partager avec vous les résultats du Concours International de Chant Baroque de Froville 2023 :

1 er prix : Josipa Bilic
2 eme prix : Laurence Pouderoux
3 eme prix : Camilla Seale
Prix génération opéra : Jordan Mouaissia
Prix du public : Jordan Mouaissia
Prix Gemelli Factory : Josipa Bilic et Jordan Mouaissia

19/06/2023

“Packing out a church for obscure 17thC music? MusicaAntica are clearly doing something right!

Warm welcome, informal style, no apologies for rare rep, nor overblown claims for it. Making us all feel included, not just sung at - and lots of funny irreverent surtitles” - Simon Brackenborough

We had a wonderful time giving (most) of Landi’s La morte d’Orfeo and Banchieri’s Barca di Venetia per Padova an airing on Saturday! Next month we’re off to Suffolk with Strozzi, Bembo, Leonarda and Cavalli thanks to , and our next concert will be Handel’s Aminta e Fillide on 30th September. You can find details and tickets for all our programmes via our website - musicaantica.org.uk |

10/05/2023

Flyering for the first concert of our 2023 season begins! A brilliant (and fairly well-known) madrigal comedy in the form of Banchieri’s Barca di Venetia per Padova, paired with a much more rarely-heard but utterly beautiful tragicomic opera, Stefano Landi’s La Morte d’Orfeo, sung by five brilliant singers (Macilla Seale, Emily Atkinson, Tristram Gabriel Frederick Cooke, Oliver Doyle and Joachim Sabbat, accompanied by a cast of wonderful HIP instrumentalists - Maxim Del Mar, Flora Fontanelli, Sarah Small and Jonatan Bougt. As far as we know, it will be the first time La Morte’s been performed in the UK!

Tickets for as little as £2 available from our website, as well as for the rest of our concerts this year in Rotherhithe! Tickets will be available for our exciting projects taking place in Sheffield, thanks to the Continuo Foundation, and at Royal Museums Greenwich shortly.

24/03/2023

Our 2023-4 season is now live! Seven programmes, fron Banchieri to Bembo, Landi to Lanier, across four lovely venues, The Queen's House, Greenwich, Performance Venues, Sheffield, St Mary’s Letheringham, and our own beloved melting pot, Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe. You can puchase tickets for all our concerts in Rotherhithe now, and keep an eye out as tickets for our concerts ‘abroad’ are released, but for now all of our programmes can be found on our website - take a look!

21/03/2023

We’re over-the-moon to announce that we’ve been offered a Continuo Foundation grant to tour our programme of Strozzi, Bembo, Leonarda and Cavalli to Suffolk and Performance Venues at the University of Sheffield! More details will be announced when we launch our new season on 23rd March, but for the moment you can see all the other exciting projects which the Foundation are supporting here:

Continuo Foundation is an arts charity supporting the UK's period-instrument ensembles and musicians through grant-making and other activities. Its mission is to enable a flourishing of live period performances in every region of the UK, and to help period-instrument ensembles and musicians engage a...

15/01/2023

We had a wonderful time celebrating Francesco Cavalli on the anniversary of his death last night with a full house - it was also our first concert as a recognised charity! We have a short break now before we announce our 2023-4 season in March - join our mailing list for more information, and a round-up of other concerts of early music taking place in the meantime! |

18/12/2022

And that’s it for 2022! Given travel woes the eternal cold going ‘round last night was a minor miracle, but we loved reprising our programme of South American baroque, with the addition of a mass setting unheard for over 300 years. First up in 2023 is Cavalli’s beautiful Requiem, written just a week before he died in 1674, which we’ll perform on the anniversary of his death, alongside music by his teacher Monteverdi, his student Barbara Strozzi and Luigi Rossi’s incredible cantata Disperar di se stesso - a little bit of to brighten dismal January. Tickets via our website - musicaantica.org.uk |

21/11/2022

“Musica Antica produced a magical evening of early music in the shadows of the old Surrey Docks”. Thanks to and others for the lovely comments, and all who came to Saturday’s concert - a full house for 200 years of music for voices and instruments from Binchois to Merula, and wonderful self-accompanied singing from on the theorbo and baroque guitar.

We’ve got one more concert lined up this year - music from 16th and 17th Century Mexico and Peru, and the first performance of Mexican composer Francisco López Capillas' Missa Super Scalam Aretinam for over 300 years. We’ll be releasing the first performing edition, too! Tickets (£2-£10) via our website. |

16/11/2022

The day after our next concert - and FREE admission! A beautiful programme and fantastic singers

THIS SUNDAY! 🧡

Join us St Margaret's, Putney for our Monteverdi Madrigals performance with lute, harpsichord and five Ensemble OrQuesta singers!

-- FREE OF CHARGE --
6pm
Sunday 20th November 2022

➡️ www.ensembleorquesta.com/monteverdi-madrigals

Musica Antica Rotherhithe

13/10/2022

Flyering begins for our penultimate concert of the year! Just over a month to go until we present another candlelit evening of rarely-heard music from 15th, 16th and 17th Century France and Italy, some self-accompanied by wonderful guest performers Angela Hicks and Kristiina Watt, punctuated by chansons, madrigals and instrumental music performed by our regulars. Tickets just £2-£10 as usual, with our lovely gins for sale throughout the evening! More details and tickets can be found on our website: musicaantica.org.uk

17/08/2022

We’re one month away from concert number 3 of our 2022 season! Centred around Cavalli’s depiction of the Fall of Troy in his opera La Didone (1641), we decided to follow the heart-wrenching, chromatic laments of the Hebuca, Queen of Troy and her daughter Cassandra, with some of the most chromatic music we could find for up to five voices and instruments from the 16th and 17th centuries. The result is a fantastic programme covering everything from Lusitano (also first black composer to have his music published) to Purcell. Tickets (£10, or £2 if you’re out of work or a student!) are available from our website - musicaantica.org.uk

We’re in Venice at the moment helping out at a polychoral workshop, and took the time to do a pilgrimage to the place where Cavalli is buried with his wife and sisters - San Lorenzo. He left much of his estate to the church, providing also for a performance of his Requiem Mass there once per year. The church was never finished, and sadly nothing can be seen of his resting place today. Likewise for Marco Polo, who was buried in the earlier church on the site! |

23/07/2022

Another beautiful lament, this time from Act I of Cavalli's opera L'Eliogabalo (1667, though unperformed until the modern day) sung by Tristram Cooke. Here Alessandro bemoans his wife's infidelity, though at this point the audience is aware that he's been tricked by the scheming emperor Eliogabalo, and his wife hasn't been unfaithful at all. The action of the opera is set loosley around events taking place at the end of the short reign of debauched emperor Elagabalus who, as in reality, is beheaded at the end of Act III.

You can find a performing edition of this and 25 other arias and duets from Cavalli's operas via our website, complete with performing notes and full translations by Oliver Doyle: https://www.musicaantica.org.uk/music

23/07/2022

One of Francesco Cavalli's most heart-wrenching laments, from Act I of the opera L'Artemisia (1657).

You can find a performing edition of this and 25 other arias and duets from Cavalli's operas via our website, complete with performing notes and full translations by Oliver Doyle: https://www.musicaantica.org.uk/music

23/07/2022

A duet to rival Pur Ti Miro, one of two between lovers Helen (later of Troy) and Menelaus of Sparta from Francesco Cavalli's wonderful opera L'Elena (1659). Sung by the equally wonderful Camilla Seale and Tristram Cooke.

You can find a performing edition of this and 25 other arias and duets from Cavalli's operas via our website, complete with performing notes and full translations by Oliver Doyle: https://www.musicaantica.org.uk/music

19/07/2022

A lovely, full Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe, at our concert last Saturday, celebrating composers Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bembo and Isabella Leonarda. We’ve more lovely 17th Century music coming in September - details and tickets for that via our website!

02/07/2022

We’re excited to be back on the beautiful stage of on 11th July, 7pm, for a workshop on Historical Gesture in performance! Whether you’re a singer, instrumentalist, actor or a fan of theatre in general, this promises to be a fantastic introduction to how to use a codified language of movement to add emotion, intensity and presence to any performance. Led by the brilliant ! You can find tickets here and on our website (link in bio) - both online and in-person; they’re available on a pay-what-you-can basis! https://sandsmusic.eventive.org/schedule/6290fbe8349d0300efaad775 |

19/06/2022

Flyering for our next concert begins! Beautiful musuc by three women writing in the mid-17th Century, and tickets for a song! You can find out more and grab a ticket via our website: musicaantica.org.uk