Venetian Mysteries

A Day of Music, Art & Discovery at Boughton House

Inspired by the recent discovery in the Montagu Music Collection of Venetian music unseen and unheard for over two hundred years, Boughton House and Venice Music Project, in association with the Venice in Peril Fund, are delighted to present an exploration of the 18th-century connections – artistic, musical, and cultural – between Boughton and Venice.

Choose between the full day immersive experience (including two concerts, 11am to 7.30pm) or the half-day (2pm to 7.30pm), including the story of the lost music, with both options culminating in a performance in The Great Hall of some of the newly discovered music by Vivaldi contemporaries, Giovanni Porta and Johann Adolf Hasse, as well as sacred, operatic and instrumental works by Handel and Vivaldi. The day will also feature:

- Venice Music Project Ensemble performing with period instruments and in Venetian 18th-century style, with soloists Liesl Odenweller and Caterina Chiarcos (sopranos) and Alexander Simpson (countertenor).

- Morning concert by the Venice Music Project Ensemble and soloists in Warkton Church, featuring music by Vivaldi, Handel and Pergolesi; private view of the Montagu Monuments.

- UK premiere screening of Venetian Mysteries: The Lost Music, a documentary film about the exciting and unique discovery in the Montagu Music Collection

- Paul Boucher, Montagu Music Collection Curator, will introduce Professor Marica Tacconi of Pennsylvania State University, who will discuss the importance of the lost music.

- Guided tour of Boughton House, including the opulent State Rooms. Be among the first to see the newly-completed restoration of The Great Hall ceiling: a magnificent 1705 painting of The Apotheosis of Hercules by Louis Chéron.

- Garden tour: a major restoration programme has included the replanting of hundreds of avenue trees, restoring waterways, lakes and reflecting pools; the man-made Mount has been uncovered offering commanding views of the revitalised landscape, the 21st-century garden, Orpheus (a sunken, inverted pyramid) and the Star Pond.

- An introduction to the Venetian art in the Buccleuch collection by art historian Professor Deborah Howard.

- Venice and the Grand Tour exhibition featuring artefacts acquired by members of the Montagu and Buccleuch families, including: paintings by Guardi, Marieschi, and Joli; antique Roman sculptures; Ruskin’s superb Venetian architectural drawings; 18th-century prints of Venice by Marieschi and Canaletto; archive material including letters and historic music manuscripts, several of which will be played in the concert.

- Concert in The Great Hall by the Venice Music Project Ensemble and soloists, with sacred and operatic music from the Boughton archive, featuring the first performance in modern times at Boughton House of the two Venetian motets which have been identified as unique to the archive.

The full day ticket includes refreshments and a picnic lunch bag and, for those travelling from London, there is an option to buy a ticket to include transfers from and back to Kettering Station.

All tickets include pre-concert cake and prosecco (specially bottled for the event and generously donated by Najma Prosecco).