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The Venice Music Project’s 2026 spring concert season unfolds around three key themes: Affetti, teatro, Meraviglia, a journey through vocal music from the 17th to the early 18th century
More than just a title, these concepts offer a listening perspective that spans much of European musical culture from the 17th to the 18th century.
In Baroque musical thought, the theory of Affetti identified music as a privileged means of representing and evoking passions: sadness, joy, devotion, desire. Teatro, on the other hand, is not limited to opera. Much of the vocal music of the era—from chamber cantatas to sacred repertoire—is based on a profoundly dramatic conception of musical discourse, in which words and sounds combine to shape an emotional narrative. Meraviglia, finally, stands out as one of the central aesthetic categories of the Baroque: the sense of wonder evoked by compositional ingenuity, expressive intensity, and the virtuosity of the performers.
The season unfolds around these three themes.
The opening concert, on March 28, is dedicated to a major rediscovery. The program Hidden Treasures: Rivals in Venetian Churches will feature the motet Modo placida et amena by Giovanni Porta, discovered at Boughton House (United Kingdom) and rarely performed today. This concert is part of the Hidden Treasures research project, dedicated to the rediscovery of little-known repertoires linked to Venetian musical life between the 17th and early 18th centuries.
The theme of Affetti runs through several programs this season. On April 1, François Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres—among the finest achievements of French sacred music at the turn of the 18th century—offer an intensely expressive meditation on the text of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. On April 11, the program Springtime in Nature: the Cantatas by Handel, Bononcini and Others explores the Italian chamber cantata, a central genre of musical life in early 18th-century Rome. On April 25, Baroque and Beyond: Mozart and His Teachers examines the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartand his engagement with earlier musical traditions, while on May 9, With Art and Valour: Ferrari and Monteverdi returns to the origins of accompanied monody and the rhetorical principles of early 17th-century vocal music. Finally, on May 23, Two Sopranos in Springtime highlights the brilliant and virtuosic dialogue characteristic of much of the Baroque vocal repertoire.
The Teatro dimension is particularly evident in two programs. On April 18, A Letter from Dowland pays tribute to John Dowland on the 400th anniversary of his death, evoking the poetic and expressive world of Elizabethan song. On May 2, An Espresso with Bach: The Coffee Cantata brings to life the atmosphere of 18th-century Leipzig cafés, where Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht by Johann Sebastian Bach offers a witty miniature of musical theater.
Meanwhile, the Hidden Treasures series continues. On April 4, Holy Saturday, excerpts from Johann Adolf Hasse’s oratorio Sant’Elena al Calvario will be presented, while on May 16, the program Handel in Rome: the Cantatas for Cardinal Ottoboni evokes the private concerts that enlivened musical life at the Palazzo della Cancelleria during the early decades of the 18th century.
The season’s closing event is dedicated to Meraviglia, in the fullest Baroque sense of the term. On May 30, Domenico Scarlatti’s opera seria, Tetide in Sciro, will be performed in its entirety in concert form, marking its first complete modern performance in Venice. This project is the result of two years of research and study of the only complete manuscript of the opera preserved in the city, and aims to bring back to the stage a significant example of early 18th-century Italian opera, far less well-known than the composer’s famous keyboard works. Through these programs, the season offers not only a series of concerts but a journey through various forms of vocal music spanning the 17th and 18th centuries—from liturgical devotion to chamber cantatas, from Elizabethan songs to Italian opera seria. In this sense, Affetti, Teatro, and Meraviglia become not only historical categories of Baroque culture, but also three keys enabling modern audiences to engage with this repertoire.
More information and tickets : www.venicemusicproject.it
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