Music of Giulio Caccini and his time

Canto Fiorito (Lithuania)
Renata Dubinskaitė, mezzo-soprano
Filip Hrubý, harpsichord (Czech Republic/Switzerland)
Rodrigo Calveyra, cornetto, recorders and artistic director (Brazil/France)

Giulio Caccini was a major Italian composer, and one of the responsible for the biggest transformation in the history of music. At the end of the renaissance (end of the XVI century), the church, musicians and audiences were struggling to keep alive the music style that ruled for two centuries: the polyphony. In one hand, the church was accusing composers because the sacred texts were not recognizable anymore because of the intricate relationship between music voices. In the other, musicians were struggling to play so many and difficult voices, specially the lute players, who had limited possibilities with their instruments. And the public, in the middle of that, was aiming for a less technical and a more fresh and improvisational way to carry the text.

In 1601, Giulio Caccini published in Florence his “Le Nuove Musiche”, presenting this new and fresh music style: the monody, which was by the way mostly accompanied by lutes. This collection of pieces represented the beginning of a new era in music, presenting the texts with only one singing voice with a basso continuo, the synthesis of all other voices in one bottom voice with a vertical harmonic material. This new style of music endured by centuries, and was the predecessor of genres like the famous German “lied”.

Canto Fiorito program presents not only the music created by Giulio Caccini, but also by his daughters Francesca and Settimia, as well as other composers of his time like Claudio Monteverdi, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Stefano Landi, Giovanni G. Kapsberger, or Tarquinio Merula.

Giulio Caccini (1551–1618) Dalla porta d’oriente

Giulio Caccini Dovrò dunque morire 

Stefano Landi (1587–1639) Augellin 

Francesca Caccini (1587–c. 1645) Fresche aurette

Tarquinio Merula (1595–1665) Canzona

Giulio Caccini. O che felice giorno 

Giulio Caccini. Vedrò’l mio sol 

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643) Se l’aura spira

Settimia Caccini (1591– c. 1638) Già sperai non spero hor più 

Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) Si dolce è’l tormento 

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina/ Vestiva i colli 

Francesco Rognoni (XVI a. – po/after 1626)

Giulio Cacini Amarilli

Claudio Monteverdi Quel squardo sdegnosetto

Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580–1651) Che fai tu? 

Tarquinio Merula. Folle è ben che si crede 

Giulio Caccini Torna, deh torna

RODRIGO CALVEYRA, cornetto, recorders and artistic director

Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Rodrigo Calveyra studied recorder with Conrad Steinmann at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and received a master degree in 2000. Simultaneously he specialized in recorder and medieval music at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano with Pedro Memelsdorff. In 2012 he graduated with a master degree in cornetto from the Hochschule für Musik of Trossingen at the class of Frithjof Smith.

R. Calveyra played as a soloist with orchestras in Brazil, Switzerland, Italy and Argentina. In 1995–2010 he directed a Brazilian based ensemble Instrumentarium, with which he performed more than 150 concerts in South America and Europe. Since 2013 he is the leader of the Vilnius based early music ensemble Canto Fiorito, and since 2017 – the artistic director of the International Kretinga Early Music Festival in Lithuania. He is a regular member of the Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, directed by Leonardo García Alarcón, and his assistant for operas. He is also a regular member of the ensemble I Gemeli and the assistant of its artistic director Emiliano Gonzalez Torres. With these and other ensembles he performed in the most prestigious early music festivals in Europe and South America. He recorded for Sony, Hamonia Mundi France, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, etc.

RENATA DUBINSKAITĖ, mezzo-soprano

Renata Dubinskaitė, mezzosoprano. Already after becoming a Doctor of Humanitarian Sciences in art history and theory, Renata Dubinskaitė turned to music and finished opera singing studies in Vilnius with bachelor degree in 2015 and master degree in 2023 in Kaunas with prof. Vladimiras Prudnikovas. She continues her singing education privately with Fernando Cordeira Opa in Bologna. The singer specialises in early music repertoire, having deepened her knowledge in many mastercourses with such professors as Maria Cristina Kiehr, Vincent Dumestre, Rodrigo del Pozo, Jan van Elsacker, Barbara Bonney, Paul Eswood, Julie Hassler and others.

She is the main soloist and producer of early music ensemble Canto Fiorito (Vilnius) as well as Kretinga International Early Music Festival, alto singer in Chamber Choir of Namur (Belgium), the artistic director of the ensembles Duo Barocco and Lux Maris. Together with Canto Fiorito she performed solo recitals and concerts in all Europe. She performed roles in many baroque operas, such as a nymph in Rossi’s “Il Palazzo Incantato” (with Cappella Mediterranea, conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón, Dijon, Nancy and Versaille), Circe in Stradella’s “La Circe” (with Canto Fiorito, Vilnius), Cesonia in Pagliardi’s “Caligula” (with the ensemble “Le Poeme Harmonique”, conducted by Vincent Dumestre, Vilnius), Holofernes in the staged version of Vivaldi’s oratorio “Juditha Triumphans” (Vilnius) and others.

FILIP HRUBÝ, harpsichord

Filip Hrubý (b. 2000 in Brno, Czechia) is an alumnus of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (CH), where he studied harpsichord and basso continuo under the guidance of prof. Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. F. Hrubý has taken part in a number of masterclasses with leading historical keyboard players, including Pierre Hantaï, William Christie, Ton Koopman, etc. He performs regularly as a soloist and a member of various ensembles and orchestras such as Collegium Marianum, Collegium 1704, Abendmusiken Basel, Les Cornets Noirs, Canto Fiorito, and the Rýnský Ensemble, of which he is a founding member. He has performed at festivals such as Salzburger Festspiele, Musik Festival Rheingau, and Smetanova Litomyšl. In addition to the harpsichord, Hrubý has also been involved in various projects as an organist and composer.