Josè Maria Lo Monaco (Mezzo-Soprano) · New CD release

New album Music for the Venetian Ospedaletto has been released for Glossa, with Josè Maria Lo Monaco and the ensemble Stile Galante.

The theme of the recording project is the relationship between the composer Nicola Porpora – one of the great masters of the Neapolitan School and teacher of the famous Farinelli – and the women musicians guested at the Ospedaletto in Venice (in particular, among them, the young Anzola Moro). Together, the composer and these ladies segregated from the rest of society started a cultural revolution, in the heart of Venice.

This recording is based on the results of a musicological and artistic research project in the area of historically informed performance practices, based on careful documentary perusal and on the analysis of the acoustics of the Ospedaletto in Venice. The research took place as part of the project “Sound, Space, and the Aesthetics of the Sublime,” hosted at Stanford University, supported by the Templeton Religious Trust’s “Art Seeking Understanding Initiative.