Ensemble Lucidarium

Guest Artist Concert

Music for a Merchant: Songs from Shylock's Venice

Program honoring the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Venice Ghetto (1516–2016)

"I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you." 

With this phrase from The Merchant of Venice, Shylock gives us a vivid image of the rules that guided Jewish-Gentile exchange in Sixteenth century Venice. Even if it was the era of the institution of the ghetto, censorship, the burning of Jewish books, and expulsions from the Spanish and Vatican holdings in Italy, it was also one of relative integration into mainstream society, and of relative religious freedom, where Jews were largely able to carry out their lives according to their beliefs and traditions. 

So it is no surprise that Shylock's Venice was also a magnet for immigration, where Spanish and German Jews joined their native Italian co-religionists who traced their presence on the Peninsula back to the Roman Empire. Whether expelled, escaping repression or simply coming to find work and a better life as Hebrew and Kabbalah teachers to enlightened Gentiles, proofreaders or authors for the burgeoning Hebrew-text printing industry, the different languages and different ideas brought from abroad, combined with the constant cultural crossover with the Italian mainstream would lead to a flourishing artistic output in the 1500s 
 
Music for a Merchant attempts to recreate the sights and sounds of a day in the life of Shylock, as he wanders in and out of the Jewish quarter in the vibrant, colorful world that was Renaissance Venice, inspired by Leopold Bloom's wanderings in early 20th century Dublin from James Joyce's Ulysses. 

Repertoire

Songs in Italian, Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish, (the languages used by the various nationi d'ebrei when Northern Italy was a magnet for Jewish immigration) are combined with the dances that Jew and Gentile alike would have enjoyed while celebrating a baptism, circumcision, or wedding - whether it took place under a chuppah or inside of a church - as well as canti carnascialesche, songs for Purim; and the villanelle ebraiche that give a glimpse of how Jews were viewed by the outside. Texts drawn from Shakespeare and contemporary Italian sources round out the program. 

Lucidarium

​Lucidarium specializes in bringing little-known repertoires from the Renaissance and Middle Ages back to life in an entertaining, engaging way designed for a 21st century public. This unique combination of cutting-edge research and high-energy, spontaneous performance-style has earned them kudos from the international press. 

Based in Geneva and Milan, Lucidarium has been awarded grants from the European Association for Jewish Culture, the Rothschild Foundation, Pro Helvetia, the Brandeis/Hadassah Foundation and the Canton of Geneva, and regularly receives support from Swiss and Italian institutions around the world. The ensemble has made six prize-winning CDs, dozens of radio recordings, as well as documentaries for Dutch, Italian, French and Swiss television. 

Next to hundreds of concerts to date in important early music festivals, Lucidarium makes frequent "crossovers" into Jewish, world and classical music venues. A selection of appearances includes: AMUZ, The Boston Early Music Festival, Vienna Konzerthaus (3 concerts), Holland Early Music Festival/Network (20 concerts), Seattle Early Music Guild, Flanders Festival, the National Gallery (Washington D.C.), Santander Festival, Primo Levi Center (New York), Regensburg Early Music Festival, York Early Music Festival, Royaumont Foundation (6 concerts), the Ashkenaz Festival, Freunde alter Musik Basel, Getty Museum, Fraenkischer Sommer, the Toronto Consort Series and Yiddish Summer Weimar. 

Recent performances include a 7-concert tour of North America, and another 7 concerts in Holland and Belgium for the Early Music Netwerk; "Hombres de Maiz," for the Festival Caminos at the Quai Branly Ethnographic Museum (Paris); "Ninfale" at the Boston Early Music Festival; and "The Babel Project" at Yiddish Summer Weimar, the latter a collaboration with two rising stars on the Jewish/New Music scene, Sasha Lurje and Ilya Shneyveys of the Latvian "Yiddish psychedelic rock" band forshpil. Lucidarium's latest project, Diwan, is a program exploring the links between the traditional Arab repertoire and the music of the Italian trecento featuring Osama Abu Arafeh (oud) and Mohammed Ghonesh (violin), two young musicians from the Edward Saïd National Conservatory of Music of Palestine.