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  • Pagina Non Cliccabile
  • Home
  • agenda
  • about
  • programmes
    • Due radici
    • Catari, Maggio, l'Ammore
    • Dowland in Italia
    • Il Labirinto di Isabella
    • Il Racconto di Mezzanotte
    • La Clessidra
    • La Passacaglia della Vita
    • Le Strade del Cuore
    • Odi et Amo
    • Recitare Tasso
    • Sud
    • Villanesca
  • Masterclasses
  • cd
    • Due Radici
    • Catarì, Maggio, l'Ammore
    • Le Strade del Cuore
    • Il Racconto di Mezzanotte
    • Solve et Coagula
    • Cantate Deo
    • Storie di Napoli
    • Fra' Diavolo
    • Il settecento napoletano
    • Recitar Cantando
    • Frottole
    • La bella noeva
  • Gallery
    • foto
    • video
  • news
  • Contact
    • newsletter
    • booking
  • Pagina Non Cliccabile
  
DOWLAND IN ITALIA
(Dowland in Italy)

The imaginary diary of John Dowland’s journey in Italy –
an Italy of landscapes and emotions, different foods,
causal encounters and missed appointments.
 
 
 
   My Most Magnificent and Obedient  Lord,
 
I have learned from a letter by Signor Alberigo Malvezi of the courteous affection
with which you have expressed a desire to form the bonds of friendship with me,
whereby I thank you infinitely for your good will, and offer myself for such an
encounter if I may be in any way of service, for the merits of your infinite virtues
and qualities warrant that all men, and I myself, should admire and obey you; and
finally, I kiss your hands.
                                                                                    From Rome, 13 June 1595.
                                                          From Your Lord’s Most Affectionate Servant,
                                                                                                  LUCA MARENZIO 

 

This letter, cited in the preface to Dowland’s First Booke of Songs or Ayres, published in London in 1597, bears the signature of one of Italy’s greatest composers, and one with whom John Dowland could boast a bond of friendship. It also testifies to the fame enjoyed by the latter, a figure of a restless and melancholic character. It was also because of certain events attributed to somewhat murky political and religious associations that Dowland decided to undertake a voyage which would keep him away from the insular borders of England for some time. Following Luca Marenzio’s invitation, and moved by the curiosity to meet him, Dowland set off for Italy in the hopes of cultivating the cultural milieu into which the great madrigal composer could have easily introduced him. But it was fated that the two men would never meet. Marenzio was in Rome when Dowland crossed the border into Italy. The Englishman, after having wandering through the country for a lengthy period of time visiting Florence, Venice and Genoa, decided to go to Rome, but was urgently called back to his homeland and thus hastily abandoned his plans to travel to the eternal city. Thus John Dowland and Luca Marenzio did not meet each other on that occasion, and another opportunity would never present itself.
 
This much is documented history.
Our concert, instead, is the fruit of imagination, a dr
eam. It reflects the desire to see our very personal Dowland visit places dear to us, speak with people whom we ourselves would perhaps have liked to meet, read and listen to tales and stories buried in an ancient memory. His songs – and our story – are juxtaposed against those of other composers represented on the program, not for the purpose of mapping a geographical line of demarcation or illustrating an anthology of musical styles, but rather to mark the stopping points along this idealized journey which, like all journeys, consists of tastes, sensations, images, colors – in short, of fantasy. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          © Marco Beasley

​


Marco Beasley           voice
Stefano Rocco           archlute and guitar
Fabio Accurso           lute

                                                                                                                                       MARCO BEASLEY © COPYRIGHT 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED