Sospiri d’Amore – Love Songs of the Italian Baroque

Seventeenth-century Italy was an exceptionally fertile and exciting place for vocal music. The beginning of the century ushered in radical new compositional approaches, as well as the budding genre of opera.

This program will highlight works by two of the century’s most sensual composers for the voice, Claudio Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi, as well as their contemporary, the lute virtuoso Giovanni Kapsberger. A rare cantata for voice and recorder by Alessandro Scarlatti demonstrates the culmination of seicento vocal writing at the cusp of the high baroque period.

Sospiri d’Amore is a group of passionate baroque specialists, who came together under the artistic direction of internationally acclaimed baroque interpreter Nerea Berraondo.

About the Venue

The conversion of the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the Hill building into the Summit Center for Arts and Innovation is a wonderful project to build a new education and performance center in the heart of Saint Paul. Owner John Rupp and Harry Chalmiers, the former president of McNally Smith College of Music, have been working tirelessly to fix up the space and build a new creation and collaboration center for the performing arts.

While the space isn’t yet fully operational, they’ve already gotten a great start at booking performances. The Twin Cities Early Music Festival gave performances in the space in August, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has scheduled concerts in their Liquid Music series for March.

Entrance and Parking

The entrance to the space is from Saratoga Avenue. Parking in the area is largely residential.