Delizie di Posillipo. Music for the Viceroy of Naples | LAU027
Delizie di Posillipo. Music for the Viceroy of Naples | LAU027
The main focus of the album is the recreation of the festa a ballo Delizie di Posillipo, which was performed on 1 March 1620, Carnival Sunday, at the Royal Palace of Naples to celebrate the recovery of King Philip III, during the governorship of Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna (1574–1624), a central figure in the political and cultural life of the Mediterranean at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Osuna’s Naples is presented as a true artistic laboratory where Spanish and Italian traditions converged, ranging from sacred polyphony to the madrigal and popular forms.
The spectacle combined recitation, dance, and vocal and instrumental music within a complex stage setting that included visual effects, symbolic animals, and elaborate allegorical choreographies. The recording also brings together sacred works by figures such as Giovanni Maria Trabaci, chapel master from 1614; Francesco Lambardi, organist and composer close to the viceroy; and Scipione Lacorcia, a prominent representative of the Neapolitan madrigal generation influenced by Carlo Gesualdo.
The recording offers an insight into the musical excellence of the Royal Chapel of Naples, an institution that gathered some of the most innovative composers of its time and played a key role in the dissemination of the Baroque style throughout southern Italy. The recorded repertoire is based on musicological research carried out by Albert Recasens at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, drawing on primary sources of exceptional value – notably the printed Breve racconto della festa a ballo (1620), which remarkably preserves the texts, much of the music, and numerous stage directions for the courtly festa Delizie di Posillipo. This source is complemented by manuscripts kept at the Biblioteca dei Girolamini in Naples and by printed collections of composers such as Giovanni Maria Trabaci, Francesco Lambardi, Scipione Lacorcia, and Giuseppe Palazzotto e Tagliavia, key figures in the Neapolitan musical life of the period.
The release of this album has been supported by the Centro de estudios Europa Hispánica (CEEH) and the Fundación Tatiana.
You can select to purchase our Booklet in PDF format, complete physical disc or digitally and songs individually.
Reviews
LAU027 | 8435307620583
Febrero de 2026
Digipack | 1 CD | 58:10
– Le Delizie di Posilipo, replanté dans l’apparat festif pour la guérison de Felipe III. Crescendo Magazine, Christophe Steyne, 29706/2026 (Joker absolu de Crescendo) [pdf]
– Crítica del disco Delizie di Possillipo. Ritmo Magazine, nº 1007, Simón Andueza, Julio 2026 (5 estrellas) [pdf]
– Musiques pour le vice-roi de Naples par La Grande Chapelle. ResMusica, Cécile Glaenzer, 29/05/2026 [pdf]
– Delizie di Posillipo: exhuberancia barroca. Docenotas, Angel Antonio Chirinos Amaro, 25/05/2026 [pdf]
– La altura de la paz en la palabra. La ciudad silenciosa de Radio Clásica RNE, María del Ser, 24/05/2026
– Reseña | Delizie di Posillipo. Música para el Virrey de Nápoles. Melómano Digital, Ángel Villagrasa Pérez, 20/05/2026 [pdf]
– Osuna y las delicias del poder. A musical map. Diario de Sevilla, Pablo J. Vayón, 22/03/2026 [pdf]
– Delizie di Posillipo – Música para el virrey de Nápoles. On line Merker, Derek Schauß, 26/02/2026 [pdf]
Review
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