Il furioso
This program is a fantasy of possibility in Renaissance Venice. The genre of the Dialogo – a scripted pedagogical discourse between Master and Apprentice – was a common teaching tool during this time. Incantare has imagined one such dialogo between the master painter Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) and his talented daughter and chief apprentice, Marietta Robusti (La Tintoretta), who was also a musician. The dialogo is dramatized by two members of the musical ensemble, with Ben David Aronson reading the part of Jacopo Tintoretto and Cynthia Keiko Black reading the part of Marietta Robusti. The two discuss the legacy of their family, touching on many subjects from the current themes at the pub and popular music of the day, to more solemn topics such as the state of the plague and religion. As commentary on their discourse, Incantare has crafted sets of music that address these same subjects, demonstrating how the visual, written, and musical arts are inextricably bound together.