A little over 300 years ago a new show opened in Venice, and according to reports it was a smash hit. Funny thing that, because, save for one reprise, it then all but disappeared -- along with much of the baroque and "early music" of that era.
It is now being re-discovered, and re-played, on the instruments of that era, the lute, the harpsichord, the theorbo.
Early music is described in rapturous terms by the music critic, Andrew Porter. He said that, "music sounds best the way its composer wrote it, and by best, I mean most expressive, most beautiful, and most enjoyable."
