Events

Cappella Fede

Tuesday 10 March 2026
19:00 - 21:00
Audience: Open to the public, staff and students
Booking: This event is ticketed

Book now

Price

FREE/£10/£8/£5

PRIMA DONNA NEWLY-DISCOVERED CANTATAS AND ARIAS FROM EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ITALY Antonio Vivaldi, Francesco Mancini, Pietro Pizzolo, Maria Rosa Coccia and more. Musical Director: Peter Leech

In 2024 Peter Leech discovered six manuscript volumes of early eighteenth-century cantatas and arias derived from southern Italian lands. Containing approximately 100 items, the collection contains hitherto completely unknown music by leading Italian composers of the baroque period such as the Neapolitan Francesco Mancini, the Sicilian Pietro Pizzolo and the Bolognese Annibale Pio Fabri, a tenor virtuoso famous throughout Europe who sang for Handel in London. Highlights amongst the many superb works include an aria by Antonio Vivaldi set to an unknown text as well as an unknown Vivaldi instrumental work. On Tuesday 10 March at 19:00, in the Cardiff University School of Music Concert Hall, Cappella Fede and Peter Leech will undertake the first modern performances of select cantatas and arias from this important collection. Included with the concert repertoire will be the first complete modern performances of sacred works by the Roman maestra di cappella Maria Rosa Coccia, one of Leech's key research interests.