This concert presents selections from Salamone Rossi’s compositions—vocal music in Italian and Hebrew as well as instrumental works from the 1620s—together with world-premiere performances of three songs by Israeli composer Oded Zehavi set to poetry by Leone Modena.
Rebecca Cypess is the founder and director of the Raritan Players, known for their acclaimed past performances at the Italian Academy: In the Salon of Angelica Kauffman and Music as Discovery in Galileo's Italy. In this concert, the ensemble teams up with Bass-Baritone Ian Pomerantz, a specialist in both early music and Jewish music, to explore the music of Salamone Rossi and his supporter, the rabbi and cantor Leone Modena. Cypess and Pomerantz will also premiere three songs by Israeli composer Oded Zehavi set to texts by Modena.
The Raritan Players
Ian Pomerantz, Bass-Baritone
Dongmyung Ahn, Violin
Gersh Chervinsky, Violin
Charles Weaver, Theorbo
Rebecca Cypess, Harpsichord
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ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
Salamone Rossi’s Hebrew compositions, Ha-Shirim Asher Li-Shlomo (The Songs of Solomon, 1622–23), were published together with two lengthy essays by the rabbi, cantor, and community leader Leone Modena: one preface justifying the use of polyphonic music in synagogue and another outlining how and why Rossi wrote the Shirim. Rossi, a Jewish composer and string player active in the musically innovative city of Mantua, sought to bring to the synagogue the same musical creativity that he offered to the ducal court of the Gonzaga family and the city at large. As Modena explained, Rossi’s Shirim constituted an effort to reclaim the art of music as practiced by the Jews in the ancient Temple and breathe new life into it for Mantua’s vibrant and musically active Jewish community.
Doors open at 6:30pm. Registration does not guarantee a seat; registrants are seated first-come, first served.
This event is in-person only.
