Sounds from Shylock’s Venice

10 September, 20:00 | Online concert from the Synagogue of Gorizia, Italy

Sounds from Shylock’s Venice
Music from the 16th-century Venetian ghetto
This concert is dedicated to the Year of the Vilna Gaon and to the history of the Jews of Lithuania

Lucidarium, dir. Averi Gosfield (Italy)

  • Giulia Valentini – voice
  • Carla Nahadi Babelegoto – voice
  • Enrico Fink – voice, narration
  • Avery Gosfield – recorder, pipe and tabor
  • Élodie Poirier – nyckelharpa
  • Fabio Accurso – lute
  • Massimiliano Dragoni – hammer dulcimer, percussion

 

16th-century Venice was a place in which, like Vilnius some time ago, Jews were largely able to live according to their beliefs and traditions, while at the same time carrying out an intense, continuous exchange with their Gentile neighbours in a town where everyone gathered, regardless of class or religion.
Songs in Italian, Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish are combined with dances that Jews and Gentiles alike would have enjoyed while celebrating a baptism, circumcision, or wedding – whether it took place under a chuppah or inside a church – as well as carnival songs, songs for Purim, and the villanelle ebraiche that provide a glimpse of how Jews were viewed by their neighbours. Music for a Merchant attempts to recreate the sights and sounds of a day in the life of Shakespeare’s Shylock, as he wanders in and out of the Jewish quarter in the vibrant, colourful world that was Renaissance Venice.
Working between historical sources and the oral tradition, Lucidarium is dedicated to a multicultural approach to early music, bringing back to life the voices of the ‘others’ – those who lived in the shadows of the great institutions –in an entertaining, engaging way, designed for 21st-century audiences.