Enter the livestream at any time
Stream began October 1, 2023 7:00 PM UTC
Already unlocked? for access

To attend this concert in person: click here to reserve your seat.


An outpouring of emotion, expressing messages of love, lust and lamentation.

A concert of Baroque music featuring

Angela Hicks - Soprano

& Aileen Henry - harp

Artistic direction: Brian Robins


Programme to include:

Monteverdi – Lettera Amorosa

Lanier – Hero’s complaint to Leander


Brian Robins is a music historian, broadcaster and writer. He has published three books related to 18th century music in England. Currently he is a reviewer for Opera magazine and has reviewed for Early Music Review for many years. More recently he has taken a keen interest in Baroque gesture and the historically informed staging of early operas. In 2019 he directed a staged performance of Handel’s dramatic cantata Aminta e Fillide with Fair Oriana (Penelope Appleyard and Angela Hicks) and Opera Settecento.


Baroque gesture is an important aspect of any attempt to create the historic performing conditions of 17th and 18th century opera. Owning to an expressive language of its own, it is founded on elegant movement and in particular the use of the hands to convey powerfully the emotions of the text to the audience. This evening we will be applying Baroque gesture to Monteverdi’s ‘Lettera amorosa’ (Madrigals, Book 7) – which has as its topic the emotions of a young man as he passionately expresses his deepest feelings in a letter addressed to his lover.