Lucca Consort Week

Girolamo Frescobaldi ~ Missa sopra l’aria della Monica
Nicolao Dorati ~ Virtute magna
Girolamo Dorati ~ O salutaris hostia
sacred music by Cipriano de Rore, Giovanni Croce,
Andrea Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi

The repertoire will be drawn from the sacred music of composers working in Italy in the 16th century. For part of the time we will sing in small groups – participants should indicate on their application whether they would prefer to sing alone or with another voice on their line. For the rest of the time we will sing together in a choir when our main work will be the Frescobaldi mass. Frescobaldi was employed as organist in some of Rome’s most important churches and is remembered mainly as a keyboard composer. This tuneful eight-part mass is based loosely on the secular song ‘Madre, monaca non mi vo’far’. It is found in a manuscript in the archive of St John Lateran and it has to be admitted that the attribution to Frescobaldi is not above suspicion. The two pieces by the Doratis, grandfather and grandson, are a tribute to a prominent Lucchese family of composers and sackbut players.

The historic Tuscan city of Lucca is famous for the well-preserved ramparts that encircle the ancient centre, the duomo of San Martino and countless other monuments. The street plan preserves that of the ancient Roman city and the oval Piazza San Michele is imprinted on the site of the Roman forum. The Lucca Consort Week will take place in Convictus, a former nunnery in the north-east of the old city, not far from the forum. When the last of the dwindling sisterhood moved out in 2015, the building acquired a sympathetic new owner in Lauro Dini, who is finding it a variety of cultural and academic uses while preserving the fabric and the contemplative atmosphere. It has a chapel with a working organ from 1682, numerous other practice spaces, a peaceful walled garden and twenty-five single rooms where members of the course may stay in monastic simplicity.

Robert Hollingworth has spent much of his life looking for ways to share his love of Renaissance and modern music, often by creating ground-breaking projects which present music to audiences in innovative ways. He founded I Fagiolini in 1986: with them he has presented their signature projects including Simunye, The Full Monteverdi, Tallis in Wonderland, and How Like An Angel (with Australian contemporary circus group C!RCA), and Betrayal: a polyphonic crime drama (for singers and dancers based on the music of Gesualdo), which premiered at the Barbican in May 2015. Robert has directed the English Concert, the Academy of Ancient Music, Norddeutscher Rundfunk Chor, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Narodowe Forum Muzyki, Wroclaw (Acis & Galatea), Symphonieorchester Wuppertal (Judas Maccabeus) and Monteverdi L’Orfeo in Venice. In 2016 he conducted the Danish National Vocal Ensemble in a new conceptual project, Angels and Demons, and made his debut with the Berlin RIAS Kammerkoor in 2018.
His recording of the Striggio Mass in 40 Parts remained at the top of the specialist classical chart for nearly four months and won the 2011 Gramophone Early Music Award and a Diapason d’or de l’année. 1612 Italian Vespers was chosen as Gramophone CD of the Month and was performed live in the 2012 BBC Proms. Robert also arranged the music for the album ‘Shakespeare: The Sonnets’ and appeared extensively on BBC TV and radio discussing the disc. Robert has worked on a number of films and writes and presents for BBC Radio 3 (CD Review, The Early Music Show, The Choir and Discovering Music). In 2012 he ran a conducting masterclass and lecture for the American Choral Directors’ Association conference and was the Special Guest Director & speaker at the Association of British Choral Director’s 30th annual convention in 2015. He directs the MA course in solo voice ensemble singing at the University of York, where despite all this global hyperactivity he is a Reader in Music.

Map of Lucca by Merian Matthaus, 1688. Convictus, the venue of the Lucca Consort Week, is in the  north-eastern quadrant, within the arms of the Y-shaped arrangement of streets.

THE COURSE
Our plan is to meet in the evening for an evening session from 5pm to 7pm on Sunday 11 September 2022. Then on the following five days to do a full morning’s work, from 9.30am to 1pm, take a four-hour lunch break – to rest the voice and explore the city – before putting in another couple of hours of singing from 5pm to 7pm before supper. We will arrange a supper for everyone together on the first and last evenings (not included in the fee for the course), but let the party split into smaller groups on the other four evenings. The course will culminate in a public performance in the evening of Friday 16 September. Half the time will be spent as a choir on the eight-part music; the other half will be spent as consorts with one or two singers to a line – say which you prefer in your application. In the consort sessions Robert Hollingworth will be assisted by four invited Lacock scholars. There will be places for thirty-two singers.

ACCOMMODATION
Convictus has accommodation for twenty-five in the nuns’ former single bedrooms, with a bathroom shared with one or two other rooms. The cost for the room only is €60 (£51) per night. We have agreed to take all the rooms, so preference may be given to applicants who want to stay at Convictus. Payment for the rooms is made directly to Convictus at the end of the stay. There is ample alternative accommodation in the city, which can be booked through the usual channels. The address of Convictus is Via della Zecca, 41, Lucca 55100.

FEES AND ENROLMENT
The fee for the course is paid in two parts: a deposit of £305 (or the equivalent in euros) on registration and €300 on or before arrival in Lucca. The deposit may be credited to another course if you have to withdraw and we are able to allocate your place to another singer. The fee includes payment for the music booklet, which will be sent to you in advance, but not meals, travel or accommodation. To enrol, just email us and include the information listed below, or if we already know it just let us know that you would like to come. We will then let you know if we can give you a place and send you details of how you may pay the deposit.