È un foco quel d’amore | Ensemble Quatrelier Apuliantiqua Early Music Festival 2025

The actress Barbara Grilli will play the role of a café waitress who will share with the audience the confidences revealed to her by the female patrons of the place. These are stories of women drawn from the librettos of famous operas from the Baroque period.

Love is a Fire

A young waitress opens the doors of a coffee room where many women find refuge for a moment of reflection, and often confide in each other about their sentimental experiences. Some are happy, fulfilled, and hopeful, while others are disappointed, betrayed, and deceived. Yet in each one of them burns "that fire which is love," a feeling that sometimes makes them queens, and other times slaves. Maddalena, Morgana, Semelè are just a few of the names of the protagonists of these stories, which were already narrated between the late 1600s and the early 1700s through the music of illustrious composers such as Caldara, Bach, Handel, Veracini, Jacquette De La Guerre, and here performed by the Quatrelier ensemble.

The aim is not only to introduce these wonderful arias of the Baroque period but also to offer the audience a reflection on the fragility of the human soul. In a time when different ways of experiencing love too easily result in violence, music is entrusted with the difficult task of guiding hearts towards respecting the feelings of others, especially those of women. This musical narrative, lasting about an hour, features the young café waitress (played by actress Barbara Grilli) telling the audience each of the stories she has been confided in, while the Quatrelier Ensemble accompanies the listener on this unique and captivating journey.

Ensemble Quatrelier

Quatrelier is friendship.
Quatrelier is the desire to discover and share precious music.
Quatrelier is the sharing of an idea that will transform into a project.

The Quatrelier ensemble was founded in 2023, initially taking on the image of an artisanal workshop, a music atelier, where they research, experiment, and define the characteristics of performances that are as faithful as possible to the practices of the Baroque era. The choice of repertoire is always part of a broader project that involves collaboration with artists from other fields beyond music (such as theater and dance) in the belief that the fusion of the arts is one of the most effective vehicles for spreading beauty.

Ensemble Quatrelier:
- Marica Mancini, soprano
- Simona Pentassuglia, Baroque violin
- Francesca Paola Lippolis, Baroque cello
- Francesca Borraccesi, harpsichord

with the participation of actress Barbara Grilli.
Web: www.apuliantiqua.events