This oratorio by the very young composer Federico Perotti tells the story of Franca da Vitalta, a woman from a noble family that, at the age of seven - in 1182 - entered by her own wish into the Benedictine monastery of S. Siro in Piacenza. At age twenty-three, upon the death of the abbess, she was unanimously elected as new superior mother, and, because of her strict observance of the Benedictine Rule, she was then faced with various conflicts amongst sisters also coming from noble families. According to the tradition, in 1273 she was canonised by Pope Gregorio X. Her cult is now still strong and alive in the city and province of Piacenza. Remembered by the Catholic Church on the 26th of April and her remains are now preserved in Piacenza, in the church dedicated to St. Raimondo. Federico Perotti creates a libretto on three temporal levels: the first is set in the years of the saint's life, the second consisting of the biography that the historian Pier Maria Campi wrote in the early seventeenth century, and the third, external to the actions, is limited to observing and describing the passage of time.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Within this recording for the first time is brought to light the reading of the “Historia del Beato San Martino”, a devotional text of the beginning of the sixteenth century which narrates in a fresh and popular language the events of San Martino of Tours, through a colorful account of his life in a dialectal, proverbial and domestic jargon, which plunges us into the typical mixed atmosphere of divine and profane of the end of Humanism and beginning of the Renaissance. The reciting voice of Roberto Cascio is flanked by the instrumental ensemble of the Cappella Musicale di San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna. The choice of music was based on the particular period of Italian music prevalent at the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s, and, in particular, on the widespread devotional-laud genre and the use of spiritual camouflaging (in fact, the melodies derived from the secular repertoire, which, in turn and very often, came from the many French composers who, at that time, frequented the most important Italian courts).

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music