O dolce nocte – About Venetian love

For centuries mankind has been writing songs about love, about its bliss and about its calamity. In Western history we know the love song tradition from the famous troubadours to the pop songs of today.

In 16th-century Italy, a genre emerged that was characterized by enormous expressiveness and produced pieces that moved people to tears or to heavenly happiness: the madrigal. This genre would become so popular in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries that there were even almost a hundred different editions of madrigal books in the city of Antwerp alone.

The Flemish composer Adriaan Willaert (from Rumbeke) not only helped to make the madrigal the most important Italian genre of the 16th century, but also formed the basis of the Venetian school. This produced composers such as Giaches de Wert (Bornem) and Cyprian de Rore (Ronse), who in turn had an enormous influence on Claudio Monteverdi. All three are known for their madrigals.

In this program Delle Donne and KalAido want to shed light on this expressive repertoire that has remained relatively unknown in our region, despite its history. They take the madrigals of love that originated from the Venetian school as their starting point.

Collaboration between Delle Donne and Kalaido

‍The collaboration between the Delle Donne Consort and KalAido is the brainchild of Frederike Van Lindt and Korneel Van Neste. They got to know each other during their bachelor studies at LUCA School of Arts, Campus Lemmens, and were connected by a shared passion for early music. Both were already active in a newly founded ensemble. For this new project, the two ensembles join forces and Korneel Van Neste takes on the role of artistic director and Frederike Van Lindt that of business leader.