The Newberry Consort and Piffaro

This program honors the great Isabella d’Este, a politician, mother, taste-maker, musician, writer, art collector, and one of the most important patrons of the Italian Renaissance. These concerts feature the frottole, an Italian song form that propagated at Isabella d’Este’s Mantuan court. Isabella commissioned her favorite poets and composers including Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521), Bartolomeo Tromboncino (d. 1534) and Marco Cara (d. 1525) to craft these short, amorous songs, which she herself enjoyed performing. Soprano Ellen Hargis gives voice to this sensual Italian poetry accompanied by a variety of Renaissance instruments, including guitar, lute, shawms, recorders, and strings.