Music: Baroque on stage at the 2025 Stradella Festival

From August 30th to September 28th, the Baroque Festival dedicated to Alessandro Stradella returns to the most evocative locations of Tuscia. A month of music, art, and culture that weaves a refined dialogue between music and the timeless beauty of Lazio's churches, historic buildings, and villages, celebrating the legacy of Alessandro Stradella. A fascinating and innovative figure of 17th-century Italian music, he will be remembered with concerts, original productions, and internationally renowned guests.

The festival opens with the concert "An Angel of Paradise - The Orrigoni Songbook," a program of Stradella's great music composed for the soprano castrato Marc'Antonio Orrigoni, "first soprano" and protagonist of Stradella's last operas during the 1679 Carnival season at Genoa's Teatro Falcone. The performance is entrusted to the Ensemble Mare Nostrum conducted by Maestro Andrea De Carlo, considered the international specialist in Stradella's operas.

Between August 31st and the two following weekends in September, concerts by leading international artists will be held in the spirit of dialogue between ancient and contemporary: "Orient/Occidente" with cellist Michele Marco Rossi (Sunday, August 31st); "La meraviglia e l'inquietudine", with the ensemble Dramatodia, conducted by Alberto Allegrezza (Saturday, September 6th); "Fiesta barroca latina!", a surprising program of Latin American baroque music with the Swedish ensemble Villancico conducted by Peter Pontvick (Sunday, September 7th); "Tarantulas, antidotes and follies", music for tarantulas throughout Spain, Puglia, the ancient Terra d'Otranto and France performed by the ensemble Terra D'Otranto (Saturday, September 13th); Handel, Scarlatti, and Pasquini in "A casa di Monsignor Kaunitz," featuring Luca Guglielmi on harpsichord (Sunday, September 14) and the Massenzio 2025 project by Stradella Y-Project Y (September 12, 13, and 14). (continued)

The treasures of the Viterbo Tuscia area attract enthusiasts and tourists.

Over the last two weekends of September, the concerts will offer a renewed contemporary reflection on Bach's music with Daniele Roccato's recital "Double Bach #3" (Saturday, September 20) in dialogue with the medieval sounds of the concert "Crisalide" with Peppe Frana and Federica Bianchi (Sunday, September 21) and the baroque "Dolci sprezzature" by flutist Dan Laurin and harpsichordist Anna Paradiso Laurin (Saturday, September 27), tracing a long arc up to the closing concert with the evocative "Madrigali allo specchio 2025" by the ensemble Cremona Antiqua directed by Antonio Greco (Sunday, September 28).

Thanks to the Alessandro Stradella Baroque Festival—supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Lazio Region, the Municipality and Province of Viterbo, and the Carivit Foundation—the treasures of the Tuscia Viterbo area and the medieval city of Viterbo annually welcome the rediscovery of Renaissance music by its great composers, such as Alessandro Stradella, who spent his childhood and adolescence in Nepi, and, among others, Domenico Massenzio and Tullio Cima from Ronciglione, and Domenico and Virgilio Mazzocchi from Civita Castellana.

The Alessandro Stradella Baroque Festival is held in partnership with Rai Radio Classica, a channel entirely dedicated to classical music with a schedule ranging from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. It will host recordings from the Alessandro Stradella Baroque Festival on the program Dal Vivo, broadcast on Saturdays at 5:30 pm.