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‘Con un non so che del frizzante’ (‘with a little something sparkling’) is how the poet Giulio Strozzi (1574) described the essence of the madrigal: a short poem, flexible in rhyme and rhythm, ideal for brief, touching scenes of love and longing. In its musical form, it came to take on an extraordinary life of its own, and in The Madrigal Reimagined we present a striking range of settings, from solo voice and lute to a full string band, showcasing every facet of the madrigal’s transformative journey from gentle part song to one of the cornerstones of opera.
Works by Monteverdi, De Rore, Palestrina, Caccini, and others are embellished with remarkable vocal and instrumental ornamentation, and – in this special live presentation to celebrate the CD release – framed by pithy, contemporary readings featuring writers from the Classics to Monteverdi’s contemporaries
Performed by MONTEVERDI STRING BAND with guest artists Hannah Ely (soprano) and Toby Carr (lute, theorbo). Directed by Oliver Webber.
The CD will be available at a discounted price for this special event only.
A drinks reception will follow the concert.
Please note:
– We do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.
– Online bookings close the day before the event. If you need to make a booking on the same day, please contact us to check availability.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
Members and friends are invited to join us at our annual Christmas dinner, this year hosted at Brasseria Notting Hill. Please note, members priority booking is now ended. Everyone is welcome to join! Do not miss the opportunity to mingle with our members, embrace the festive cheer, and get to know the heart of our Society.
DETAILS OF THE EVENING:
7 pm welcome drink
7.45 pm three -course dinner
10 pm carriages
The price of £80 pp includes:
A welcome drink, three-course dinner, half bottle of wine pp, water, coffee or tea.
MENU
We have menu options you can choose from. The menu will be sent to registered attendees by email in due course.
BOOKINGS CLOSE ON 29 November
Brasseria Notting Hill – Visit
2024 LECONFIELD LECTURE
To book for this event please CLICK HERE
We are not making a formal charge for participation in this event. Traditionally we offer attendance at the Leconfield Lecture free of charge to those members who have paid their subscription for the current year. We strongly encourage all others attending to make a minimum donation of at least £15 per participant. If any members would also like to make a donation to help offset our costs, that would be much appreciated.
Event description:
From the ashes of the war and the first experiments in neorealism, Italian cinema rose to become one of the most important and influential in the world. With directors like Visconti, Fellini, Antonioni and many others it became a byword for art and innovation. This lecture will examine two people who played a vital role in this success; the producer Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2020) and the prolific screenwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico (1914-2010) Each thought more of the industry than art and worked not only with artistic directors but with the makers of the comedies and genre films that were the bread and butter of Italian film production. Their ways of operating could hardly have been more different: flamboyant and visionary in the case of De Laurentiis, discreet and modest in the case of Cecchi D’Amico. It will be suggested that these modes corresponded to the pattern of gendered labour in the industry, in which female contributions – no matter how important – tended to be invisible. While producers historically received far less credit than directors, the achievements of De Laurentiis are today more widely acknowledged. Yet it is hard to overestimate the role of Cecchi D’Amico in impressing the marks of quality and humanity on Italian cinema that were essential to its worldwide successes in the postwar decades.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
Photo credit: Camera, Cinecittà Studio, by Sonse at https://flickr.com/photos/34585612@N00/46760148102
Conversation modarated by Peter Jones, Chair of the BIS.
Leonardo Sciascia was a Sicilian writer who defined his life by challenging injustice and illegal power wherever he saw it – among corrupt politicians in Palermo and Rome and above all in the mafia and its collusion with the state. The author of some 12 books – fiction, non fiction, poetry, essays – and a vast amount of journalism, he is one of Italy’s best known and best loved 20th century writers. His famous expose of the mafia – The Day of the Owl – in 1961 is accepted to have been the first time it was written about in fiction as a criminal organisation and not folklore. It has sold over half a million copies and been translated into many languages. As well known in Italy as Primo Levi and Natalia Ginzburg, he remains an outsider abroad – perhaps because he seldom left Sicily and spent much of his time in a small house not far from Agrigento. Sciascia died in 1989, having been involved in polemics over everything from the kidnapping of Aldo Moro to the work of the crusading anti mafia magistrates, Falcone and Borsellino.
Caroline Moorehead is a historian and biographer; author of lives of Betrand Russell, Heinrich Schliemann, Martha Gellhorn, Mme de la Tour du Pin. Her latest books are A House in the Mountains, Edda Mussolini: the Most Dangerous Woman in Europe and A Man of Honour: Leonardo Sciascia and His Battle Against the Mafia which will be published in 2025. She reviews for the TLS, Guardian, Wall Street Journal and has co-produced a series of programmes about human rights for the BBC.
A drinks reception will follow the talk
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Please note:
– We do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.
– Online bookings close the day before the event. If you need to make a booking on the same day, please contact us to check availability.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
A JOIN EVENT WITH THE CLUB DI LONDRA
This event is exclusively by invitation and is extended to members and guests of the BIS and Club di Londra. In the event that spaces are available after members have had the opportunity to RSVP, bookings will be opened to the public a few days before the event. Should you be interested to participate please contact us to be included in the waiting list.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Since it was founded in 1941, the British-Italian Society has worked to promote knowledge and understanding in the UK of Italian culture, including Italy’s history, institutions, way of life, language and wider contribution to civilisation.
The British-Italian Society
86-90 Paul Street
London EC2A 4NE