Prima Donna
Recording
June, 2027
LEONORA BARONI & THE CLANDESTINE CONCERTS IN ROME
CASTALDI, MARAZZOLI, MERULA, ROSSI
Creation - June, 2027
On tour - June & November 2027
Julie Fuch’s first baroque recital
In the 1640s, the talent of a young prima donna would change the course of musical life in France: Leonora Baroni. In Rome at the time, her vocal talent was said to be the most extraordinary the century had ever seen; poets wrote endless praises of her, Pope Clement IX adored her... and Mazarin is said to have be- come her lover. It was this diva, accompanied by the composer Marazzoli, whom the Queen of France invited to Paris in 1643 to introduce the French to Italian music.
© Edouard Brane
© Edouard Brane
Julie Fuchs and Le Poème Harmonique bring the forgotten voice of this Baroque icon back to life here through a virtuosic program. From her first stage appearances aged 16 in Mantua, where she sang accompanied by her sister and mother Adriana Basile—Monteverdi’s favorite singer—to Naples, where she composed songs on the baroque guitar, and on to Paris, where her fame spread. But she is remembered above all for Rome, where she performed cantatas and opera excerpts in the secrecy of palaces during private performances free of any ecclesiastical control. These clandestine evenings—tolerated but incompa- tible with religious morality—allowed Leonora Baroni to show- case her talent in a space of rare freedom, confirming the central role she played in the most audacious musical life of the papal city and becoming one of the most renowned performers of the 17th century : La prima donna Baroni !