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	Characters and Cast
	Pictures     Frescos inTrausnitz Castle     Show
Massimo Troiano	Music
Orlando di Lasso	A Historical Outline

Giuseppe Auletta, Il Capocomico
Giuseppe Auletta, Polidoro l'Innamorato
Anna Maria Di Lorenzo, Camilla la Cortegiana
Valeria Emanuele, Ricciolina la serva di Camilla
Luca Cairati, Baldracchino
Fabrizio Paladin, Pantalone dei Bisognosi (il Magnifico veneziano)
Luca Cairati, Zanni servo di Pantalone
Giuseppe Auletta, Don Diego de Mendoza (lo Spagnolo disperato)
Andrea Robino, il Cantante - Turlupin
Paolo Capirci, Il Capo Musico - Gianporchetta
Daniele Bernardini, Francesco Mirarchi, Cristina Ternovec, Margherita Thyssen, gli altri Musici - (e, nell'ordine: Bagattino, Bajazzo, Zagna, Rosaura)

Luca Cairati, Valeria Emanuele, Fabrizio Paladin, attori
Anna Maria Di Lorenzo, soprano e percussioni
Giuseppe Auletta, tenore
Andrea Robino, baritono
Paolo Capirci, Daniele Bernardini, flauti dolci
Margherita Thyssen, viola da gamba e bombarda
Cristina Ternovec, viola da gamba e lirone
Francesco Mirarchi, liuto e chitarra rinascimentale

ANONIMO	O vecchia tu che guardi
Orlando di LASSO	Pensier dicea che'l cor
Orlando di LASSO	Madonna mia pietà
Filippo AZZAIOLO	Chi passa per questa strada
Giovanni de ANTIQUIS	Tutto lo mal che va facendo Amore
Massimo TROIANO	O Dio quanto sei bella
Massimo TROIANO	Cinque noi siamo
Massimo TROIANO	O passos esparzidos
Massimo TROIANO	A sta finestra
Orlando di LASSO	Tutto lo dì dici: "Canta"
Giuseppe GUAMI	Canzon a 4 La Guamina
Massimo. TROIANO	Moresca
Orlando di LASSO	Por ch'hai lasciato
ANONIMO	Madonna tu mi fai
Pietro de YSIS	Erano i capei d'oro
Massimo TROIANO	All'arme, all'arme
Orlando di LASSO	Cathalina, apra finestra
ANONIMO	"La traditora" "La comarina" "El marchese"

A Historical Outline

On the night of 8 March, 1568, in the castle of Trausnitz, near Münich, in the presence of Duke Albert V and the most important European heads of state, an event of extraordinary importance for the history of music and performance took place. Two musicians, Massimo Troiano and Orlando di Lasso, were invited by the Duke to represent a "Comedia all'improviso alla italiana", in the middle of festivities for the marriage between his son William V and Renée from Lorraine, celebrated on 22. February.
The "Commedia dell'Arte" ("Arte" intended in all the accepted meanings of the word as "Profession", owing to the fact that the actors were of unquestionable level), fundamentally Italian more than in any other artistic form it had formally begun only 20 years or so beforehand, but had at that time already literally conquered all of Europe, instilling enthusiasm in the common people as much as the aristocrats of the courts. And since its very beginning actors were asked, other than to recite, to know how to sing, play and dance. Therefore, the relationship with music had always represented for the comedians a "conditio sine qua non" of their performances. This contamination, much more intense than that which the musicologists had individualized until a few years beforehand, had laid the foundations for the birth, at the beginning of the following century, for Melodrama and then Opera. A daily training, that of the comedians, both acting to music and playing music for the scenes which, effectively, had produced that necessary breeding ground for the non.the.less important experiences of the famous "Camerata de' Bardi" by Caccini, of the de' Cavalieri and other fellows. And the coming of the "Cortegiana Innamorata" represents in this important path in musical-theatre the first fundamental testimony amply documented: the idealization of the subject of the "Commedia" (play) was entrusted to two musicians, the Neapolitan Massimo Troiano, serving at the Bavarian Musical Chapel, and his Maestro di Cappella, the famous Orlando di Lasso. And the two, together with others, all Italian from the Court of Albert V, were also among the principal interpreters: the first mentioned took the role of Prologo, of Polidoro the lover and that of the Spanish Captain Don Diego de Mendoza, while Lasso that of Pantalone. To seal the relationship between comic theatre and music, which had lasted more than half a century, a second event happened which was of utmost importance, a testimony of the great professionalism also in the music field of comic actors; it took place in Mantova: in fact Claudio Monteverdi chose as protagonist for his melodrama Arianna" a very well-known actress, Virginia Ramponi, exalted also by Giovan Battista Marino in the "Adone", and for which, as the chronicles have handed down to us, "né fu una dama che non versasse qualche lagrimetta al suo bel pianto" (There wasn't even one woman who didn't shed a little tear to her beautiful crying). The theatre of the "Commedia dell'Arte", with all its splendid experience, thus gave its decisive contribution in giving birth to one of the most well-known forms of musical, diffused and loved still today: Opera. And the Ensemble La Mascherata, begun almost three years ago now, wants to make a valid contribution through a correct interpretation of this important and delicate historic-musical moment.

Ensemble La Mascherata