Musica Antica Rotherhithe
La Decima Musa, or The Tenth Muse
Music from the Golden Age of Venetian Opera, 1650-1660
Supported by a grant from Continuo Foundation
Using surviving payment records from Venetian theatres c. 1651 - 1668, our ensemble will match that which you might have seen in an orchestra pit in Venice during the 1650s: two violins, bass violin, a harpsichord, pentagonal virginal, and up to three theorbos. Using a wealth of historical music treatises, many aspects of our playing, from continuo realisation to ornamentation, attempt to match the sound you might heard as closely as possible.
Musica Antica recorded this programme as La Decima Musa: Music from the golden age of Venetian opera 1650-1660 in December 2025, thanks to the generosity of individual supporters, the Orbis Pictus Foundation, and Angel Early Music. This first tour of the programme is made possible by Continuo Foundation.
As ever, a bar selling wine, soft drinks and Holy Trinity's famous home-infused gins will be open from 7pm.
This concert will finish at 9:45pm.
Mon, 16 February 2026
New College Antechapel, Oxford
8:45pm
Tickets available shortly- ➕4 other performances
Full Event Details
Musica Antica Rotherhithe present music by Francesco Cavalli, Barbara Strozzi, Francesco Lucio, P.A. Ziani and Giovanni Legrenzi - much of it unheard for 370 years - from the golden age of Venetian opera.
Using surviving payment records from Venetian theatres c. 1651 - 1668, our ensemble will match that which you might have seen in an orchestra pit in Venice during the 1650s: two violins, bass violin, a harpsichord, pentagonal virginal, and up to three theorbos. Using a wealth of historical music treatises, many aspects of our playing, from continuo realisation to ornamentation, attempt to match the sound you might heard as closely as possible.
Musica Antica recorded this programme as La Decima Musa: Music from the golden age of Venetian opera 1650-1660 in December 2025, thanks to the generosity of individual supporters, the Orbis Pictus Foundation, and Angel Early Music. This first tour of the programme is made possible by Continuo Foundation.
As ever, a bar selling wine, soft drinks and Holy Trinity's famous home-infused gins will be open from 7pm.
This concert will finish at 9:45pm.
Venue Details & Map
Location
New College Antechapel, Oxford
Holywell St, Oxford OX1 3BN
Other performances
In addition to the performance listed above, this concert will also be performed as follows:
La Decima Musa, or The Tenth Muse
- Tue, 17 February 2026
- Elvet Methodist Church, Durham
- 7:30pm
- £1 - £10
La Decima Musa, or The Tenth Muse
- Wed, 18 February 2026
- Firth Hall, Sheffield
- 7:30pm
- £10 - £17
La Decima Musa, or The Tenth Muse
- Thu, 19 February 2026
- Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe
- 7:30pm
- £2 - £10
La Decima Musa, or The Tenth Muse
- Mon, 31 August 2026
- St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh
- 6:30pm
- Tickets available soon - Edinburgh Fringe website
St Cecilia's Hall
Related upcoming events
Workshop: The Guidonian Hand
- Sat, 14 March 2026
- Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe
- 2:00pm
- £2 - £10
Les sauvages, or, The Savages
- Sat, 20 June 2026
- Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe
- 6:30pm
- £2 - £10
Virtuosissime
- Thu, 8 October 2026
- The Queen's House, Greenwich
- 6:45pm
- £25
- ➕1 other performance
In Guilty Night, or Saul and the Witch of Endor
- Sat, 24 October 2026
- Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe
- 7:30pm
- £2 - £10
Apollon et Orphée, or, Apollo and Orpheus
- Sat, 28 November 2026
- Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe
- 7:30pm
- £2 - £10