Le Nozze In Baviera

The wedding in 1568 of Renate of Lorraine to Wilhelm V, heir to the throne of the Duke of Bavaria, was a sumptuous, 18-day spectacular designed to rival those of the Italian courts. Orlande de Lassus had been the court's maestro di cappella since 1556. Using an eye-witness account of the event, Ensemble Origo presents a hypothetical reconstruction of some of his musical contributions a Te Deum, the moresca a genre related to the villanella, and an improvised comedy thereby shedding light on some of the various meanings that the music had for it's 16th-century listeners. Ensemble Origo is an early music ensemble founded in 2010 and directed by Connecticut-based musicologist and conductor Eric Rice. It's aim is to present vibrant performances and recordings of early music from the Middle Ages through to the Baroque that reflect the context in which the repertory was originally produced and heard; 'Origo' is Latin for 'earliest beginning', 'lineage', or 'origin'. The ensemble draws on a roster of musicians from Connecticut, Boston, and New York.