Performed in the round, this concert offers a sample of the sacred and profane music that sounded in the Madrid court between 1720 and 1750. The composers of this program worked for the Royal Chapel. It was common for musicians at the service of the King to compose for religious offices and theaters, such as the “Coliseo del Buen Retiro” or the public theaters. This is the case of the master of the Royal Chapel, Francisco Corselli, organist and vice-master of the Royal Chapel, José de Nebra, violinist and cellist Jaime Facco and José de San Juan, chapel master of another of the royal chapels of Madrid: the “Convento de las Reales Descalzas”

At the beginning of the 20s in the 18th century, Italian Jaime Facco bursts into the musical scene, composing for the court great shows such as The Amazons of Spain (1720) and Jupiter and Host (1721), works that closely follow the conventions of the Italian melodrama, as is the constant succession of recitations and arias Da Capo. Also during this decade, the work of the composer José de San Juan stands out, who in addition to being a chapel master of the Descalzas Reales, was also a music teacher at the Royal College of Singing Children. San Juan premiered several zarzuelas in Madrid's public theaters, and was even commissioned for the composition of an ambitious opera, titled Angelica and Medoro (1722). Unfortunately all his stage music has been lost, but we keep an Oratory to Santa Magdalena that can give us an idea about his dedication in this field. The decade of the twenties of the eighteenth century also marks the beginning of the scenic career of José de Nebra, composing during these years the first act of the opera Amor aumenta el valor (1728) and the melodrama Venus and Adonis (1729).

José de Nebra was one of the main protagonists of the Spanish scenic music of the 18th century, who composed numerous comedies, zarzuelas, melodramas and sacramental pieces, destined mostly to the public theaters of Madrid and not to the court, where the works of composers born in Italy, such as Francisco Corselli, were preferred. Nebra shared with Corselli the work of composing music for the Royal Chapel from 1747, at which point he largely abandoned his theatrical activity. The figure of Francisco Corselli is essential to understand the history of Spanish music in the 18th century. After the death of José de Torres in 1738, Corselli replaced him in the position of master of the Royal Chapel, which he held until his death in 1778, getting to work for three different kings: Felipe V, Fernando VI and Carlos III. We conserve more than 400 religious works, in addition to operas like Farnace (1739) and Achille in Sciro (1744).

The program is completed with an overture by Vicente Basset, a violinist who worked in the orchestra of the “Coliseo del Buen Retiro” and in the theater company of María Hidalgo in the mid-18th century, and a cantada by Juan Francés de Iribarren, student of José de Torres in Madrid and later chapel master of the cathedral of Malaga. 

This concert is co-presented by Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish National Centre for the Promotion of Music (part of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport’s National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM)), in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in the United Kingdom. It is part of Proyecto Europa’s Beyond the Spanish Golden Age programme, and falls within Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with funding from the European Union’s NextGenerationEU