A Bourbon Miserere: A Musical Journey into the 18th Century

The eleventh event of the series "... where music meets its time ..." is scheduled for Tuesday, March 26 at 8:30 PM in the church of Saint Helena with the brief concert "A Bourbon Miserere at the end of the 1700s". Participation is free. The performance will be by members of the vocal and instrumental Chapel "I Musici di Corte". The concert is organized with the logistical collaboration of the parish of San Sebastiano di Caserta governed by the Community of the Capuchin Friars Minor. It will be an immersion in the liturgical music intended for Holy Week and Lent, documented in use in Caserta at the time of Vanvitelli and shortly after. A sonic journey set in the recently restored church dedicated to Saint Helena, a church in which Vanvitelli obtained permission to open a window to attend the religious celebrations directly from his adjacent apartment. Moreover, the church hosted the Brotherhood of the Cross, Prayer, and Death. The program will be of particular musical interest for two unpublished works: the "miserere" by Sigismondo, written for the Franciscan convent of Maddaloni, possibly around 1780-1790, and the otherwise unknown "Christus factus est" by de Franco, composed in 1772 for the monastery of the Carmelite nuns of Capua, a monastery that welcomed frequent visits by Charles of Bourbon and Ferdinand IV and their respective wives. The program is completed by other sacred pieces for a small ensemble to recreate the atmosphere of a liturgical celebration of the Bourbon era at the end of the eighteenth century, with a glance also towards Rome, a city to which Vanvitelli was always very attached.