Venetian celebrations on Lake Geneva

The city of Venice has been a source of fascination ever since it was founded.

A gate-way that stands open to the world, the starting point of the Silk Road, the port from which pilgrims set sail for the Holy Land, and an immense trading power (in 1597 the annual volume of trade in Venice was approaching two million ducats, twice as much as France, England and the Netherlands put together!), it fascinates us by virtue of the heritage passed down from the Byzantine Empire; the Basilico San Marco and the Fondaco dei Turchi prove this beyond any doubt.

Thanks to its flourishing commercial exchanges and its political independence – to which it owes its nickname of La Serenissima, ‘the Most Serene’ – the city was to become a crucible for the development of the arts, and of music in particular.

Inspired by the architecture of the basilica, Adrian Willaert created a layout featuring choirs that share the space and respond to one another, and thereby founded Venice’s ‘polychoral’ style in 1550 – a style that would go on to inspire all of Europe.

Europe’s capital of music publishing ever since the invention of this craft by Petrucci in 1501, by the second half of the 16th century Venice had more than 1500 musical editions, as opposed to approximately 400 in the whole of France, just over 300 in Flanders and the Netherlands, and fewer than 200 in Germany.

Venice has inspired a large number of composers, including André Campra. He wrote the opera ‘The Carnival of Venice’, which was performed at France’s Académie Royale de Musique (Royal Academy of Music) during the reign of Louis XIV.

By virtue of excerpts from works by some brilliant Baroque-era composers active in Venice, namely Vivaldi, Marcello and Albinoni, we are going to turn the Simplon into a gondola and take you on a journey through time and space, to the lagoon of the ‘Queen of the Adriatic’.

Price Fr. 95.-/person
The price includes : 1st class cruise, 1 welcome drink and Collegium Musicum concert


Timetable :
1st performance
Boarding in Lausanne from 18:00
Departure from Lausanne at 18:30
Return in Lausanne at 20:00

2nd performance
Boarding in Lausanne from 20:00
Departure from Lausanne at 20:25
Return in Lausanne at 22:00

Date:
Sunday June 5th 2022 from Lausanne

https://www.cgn.ch/en/venetian-celebrations-on-geneva-lake.html