Claudio Cavina and La Venexiana now return to the end of the 16th century. They put their distinctively Italian mark on what was, for a long time, 'secret' music: that composed by Luzzasco Luzzaschi when he was serving the ducal court of Alfonso II of Ferrara.

Alfonso brought together 'singing ladies', the Concerto delle Dame, virtuoso performers on instruments as well as with the voice, to delight and entertain the duke’s wife, as well as privileged members of the court. Apparently rival courts sent composer-emissaries to find out what was going on!

Kept under lock and key, the music written for the Dame by Luzzaschi and others was only released and published on the Duke’s death.

With Emanuela Galli, Roberta Mameli and Francesca Cassinari, Claudio Cavina has assembled a superb modern-day trio of singers in a further display of La Venexiana’s magisterial control of Italian music as it shifts gears from the Renaissance to the Baroque.