L'Arpeggiata & Christina Pluhar: Wonder Women

Of witches, saints and heroines - Christina Pluhar's album Wonder Women is all about strong women "Wonder Women honors the wonderful female composers of the 17th century," explains theorbo player Christina Pluhar. "At the same time, it celebrates female musicians of all eras who had to hide their talent behind that of their husbands or gave up their careers prematurely. Even today, equality is far from being achieved." Christina Pluhar's album focuses on two famous Italian female composers of the 17th century: Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini. But she also includes traditional Latin American and Italian melodies about witches, saints and heroines in her program. And with Maurizio Cazzati and Andrea Falconieri, two male composers are represented who portrayed strong women in their works. In the Baroque era in particular, there were countless stories about sorceresses, seductresses and warriors - the subject of numerous opera libretti. But there were also surprisingly strong and self-determined women in real life, one of whom was composer Barbara Strozzi: the single mother of four children was financially independent thanks to her musical career. For the interpretation of the various songs and arias in Wonder Women, Christina Pluhar brought in four renowned guests: the soprano Céline Scheen, the mezzo-sopranos Luciana Mancini and Benedetta Mazzucato and the contralto Vincenzo Capezzuto. The New York Times wrote about Pluhar's ensemble L'Arpeggiata: "These musicians seem to be in a state of musical intoxication - divinely infectious!"