Vergene Bella
Female Middle Ages between mysticism and devotion
4 singers and instrumentalists
The extraordinary importance that Medieval piety gave to the ideal of feminine virtue, the inspiration, not only of the Virgin Mary but of a host of other women saints that Medieval singers and poets eagerly drew upon from England to Spain, from France to central Italy is the focus of the music chosen for this program. A musical itinerary that culminates in the masterful musical setting which Guillaume Du Fay cast over the words of Petrarch's celebrated sonnet, in which the poet, like a love-smitten knight, praises the "fair Virgin, clothed with the Sun", but also calls upon her as a desperate sinner to "aid me in my struggle; though I am but clay, and you the Queen of Heaven".