La Decima Musa or The Tenth Muse

Music from the Golden Age of Venetian Opera, 1650-1660. Musica Antica Rotherhithe present cantatas and extracts from operas written for Venice's public theatres in the mid-seventeenth century, many of which have lain unperformed for over 350 years. Using surviving payment records from Venetian theatres as inspiration, Mezzo Camilla Seale and countertenor Tristram Cooke will be accompanied by an ensemble which matches a Venetian theatre band: comprising two violins, bass viol, two theorbos, harpsichord and a pentagonal virginal.