Cto Delle Dame Di Ferrara

The twelve madrigals on this CD were composed by Luzzasco Luzzaschi sometime around 1579, during the first years of the marriage of Margherita Gonzaga to Alfonso d"Este, Duke of Ferrara. They were intended to be sung by three court ladies, attendants of the Duchess, who were fabulously skilled in music. Court ladies naturally couldn't sing just anywhere; they performed only in the private chamber of the Duchess, to which a very select number of high-ranking guest might be invited. The fame of the Three Ladies became such that ambassadors, nuncios, and even sovereigns clamored to be included, and thus a new tool of diplomacy was invented. Soon every fashionable court in Italy was eager to have its own ensemble of madrigalists. High times, in short, for composers such as Luzzaschi.

But the impression made upon music was more than a fashion for women's voices. Unlike the madrigals and motets of previous generations, which were enjoyed chiefly by the singers themselves in the act of singing, these madrigals wre intended to be admired by an audience, and in fact an audience that could NOT possibly sing them also, lacking the Three ladies' virtuosity. Thus the whole relationship of music to audience began the seismic shift that would eventually lead to the construction of concert halls with paid public admisssion.

The "Concerto delle Dame di Ferrara" has done everything possible to assume the identity of their historical prototypes. They are Helena Afonso, Cristina Miatello, and Marinella Pennichi, under the direction of Sergio Vartolo. This was the ensemble in 1985, I should say, when this performance was recorded, and this is the best performance the group ever put on CD. Each of the three ladies sings beautifully on solo madrigals, and then two or three of them blend miraculously in multi-voice settings of poems by Petrarch. Unfortunately, no texts are included with the CD, an affront to all modern listeners except those few who are familiar with Petrarch from other madrigal collections. The singing is so lovely and so expressive, nonetheless, that i've offered this CD a five-star plus recommendation. I note that the MP3 download is far cheaper than the tangible CD, so without texts it seems a suitable option.

Listening to these voices, I can't help feeling that societies which scorned the singing of women, or prohibited it for 'religious' reasons, were executing their own deserved punishment upon themselves.

Notice, for your pocketbook's sake, that this recording has been released several times and is listed diversely on amazon, for radically different prices.

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  5.0 out of 5 stars