Hidden Virtuosas
Agata’s Cantata
music by Agata della Pietá, Martinelli, Bernasconi & others
An all-premieres program of orchestral and vocal music by the finest composers of baroque Venice, including Agata Cantora della Pietà’s breathtaking Ecce nunc. Agata’s Cantata is set against theatrical projections that immerse you in baroque Venice and the performances by the all-female ensembles of the day that drew sold-out crowds from across Europe.
November 7-8, 2025
Details
Initially hidden from view by a screen—as the female performers at the Venetian orphanages were originally—a shift in light reveals the Tempesta di Mare orchestra, soloists, and choir for modern-premiere performances of music composed for the Hidden Virtuosas by the most revered—and, like them, now mostly forgotten—male composers of the time. And we will perform the US premiere of an absolute rare work of stunning beauty: Agata della Pietà’s Ecce nunc.
Join us for this immersive journey to Venice with music composed by and for women at the Venetian Ospedali, the network of baroque-era orphanages that churned out top-tier female musicians on an unprecedented scale.
Dates & Tickets
Performers & Creatives
Tempesta di Mare | Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra
Gwyn Roberts & Richard Stone, directors | Emlyn Ngai, concertmaster
The Cavalier Choir of Girard College, choir | Paul Eaton, director
Midnight Productions | Projections & Lights
Gabriela Estephanie Solìs, mezzo-soprano
Laura Heimes, soprano
Program
- Agata Cantora della Pietà: Cantata Ecce nunc, Psalm 133 (North American premiere | reconstruction by R. Stone)
- Andrea Bernasconi: Motet: Cessate ire furores (modern world premiere), with cadenzas* by Fortunata dalla Pietà (ca. 1748)
- Antonio Martinelli: Concerto in C (modern world premiere), with cadenzas* by Chiara dall’Violino della Pietà (ca.1730)
- Pietro Domenico Paradies: Sinfonia and Aria from Le muse in gara (1740) (modern world premieres)
- Giovanni Porta: Aria from Il ritrato dell’eroe (1726) (modern world premiere)
*cadenza: a virtuoso solo passage inserted into a movement in a concerto
Related Performance
Major support for Hidden Virtuosas has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Paul M. Angell Foundation, the Coleman-Runyan Family Foundation, and the Presser Foundation.
