Early music artist Adam Cockerham specializes in theorbo, lute and baroque guitar. Adam began his performance career as a classical guitarist, before gravitating toward historical plucked strings. He enjoys the collaborative opportunities of chamber music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. He earned his doctorate from the Juilliard School.

Francesco Cavalli (1602 – 1676) After Monteverdi's death, Francesco Cavalli became the leading and most famous opera composer in Venice. Tremendously popular during his lifetime, he was soon forgotten after his death, and his operas vanished from the stage until their resurrection toward the end of the twentieth century.

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729), was a French composer, harpsichordist, and organist and the first woman to compose an opera in France. Elisabeth was born into a family of artists and artisans that included both musicians and instrument builders. She emerged as a musical prodigy and made her debut as a singer and harpsichordist at the court of Louis XIV, at a young age.

with GEMAS Co-Artistic Director Nell Snaidas.

The Codex Trujillo del Perù (1782–1785), is a manuscript edited in nine volumes by the bishop of Trujillo, Perù, made by Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón, containing 1,411 watercolors and 20 musical scores documenting life in his diocese. This work was sent to Charles IV of Spain, who included it in the Royal Library in 1803.

Composer: Carlo Pallavicino.

A sex farce with teeth. Clever, lecherous Messalina turns the tables several times on the gullible Emperor Claudius, who is hardly innocent himself. Meanwhile two other couples suffer their own romantic vicissitudes. Furtive assignations, frustrated trysts, kidnappings, betrayals, sudden recognitions, a heroine and a hero both in drag, and a plot as convoluted as only 17th-century Venetian opera can put together, all lead to a reconciliation that will last only as long as Messalina can keep pulling the wool over Claudius’ eyes.

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With Jory Vinikour (harpsichord) - Aura Veruni (Messalina) - Deborah Rosengaus (Emperor Claudio) - Patrick Hagen (Caio) - Kindra Scharich (Alindo/Erginda) - Keving Gino (Tullio).

In 1697, public performances of opera were forbidden by the ecclesiastical authorities, and thus the seat of further development was transferred to Naples through the removal thither from Rome of Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725), the founder of the Neapolitan school.

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With Dr. Matthew Dirst (harpsichord), Dr. Kurt Markstrom, Shawnette Sulker (Soprano), Sara Couden (Contralto), Artistic Director Céline Ricci (Mezzo-Soprano).

Francesca Caccini grew up and worked in Florence as a musician for the Medici family, following in the footsteps of her father, Giulio Caccini. She was the first woman to compose opera and the most well-paid musician in the court at the height of her career in the 1620s. In addition to operas she composed songs,incidental music, and music for the theatre, but few of her works survive.

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With Deborah Rosengaus (mezzo-soprano) - Patrick Hagen (tenor) - Spencer Dodd (bass) - Kelly Savage (harpsichord) - Gretchen Claassen (cello) - Adam Cockerham (theorbo/guitar).

Primo Libro delle Musiche: Ch’amor sia nudo - S’io m’en vò.

La Liberazione di Ruggiero: Excerpts.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Saint-Georges' first compositions were a set of string quartets, among the first in France, published by famed publisher Antoine Bailleux. Saint-Georges wrote twelve additional violin concertos, two symphonies, and eight symphonies-concertantes. He also wrote six opéras comiques and a number of songs in manuscript.

Performance Program: Excerpts from his opera L'Amant Anonyme and Sonata in A Major for harpsichord and violin.

With Michele Kennedy (soprano) - Kevin Gino (tenor) - Jory Vinikour (harpsichord and piano) Laura Rubinstein Salzedo (violin).

Would you like to know all the secrets of costume craft? Join Matthew Nash's Chit-Chat session!
Matthew began his costuming career as an apprentice for the Santa Fe opera company in 1979. After returning to Washington D.C. he spent six years patterning the men’s costumes for the Folger Shakespeare Theater. He moved to California in 1985 and was the senior pattern-maker for the San Francisco Opera for 29 years. He retired from there in November of 2013 to pursue other ventures. Matthew has designed costumes for Ars Minerva since 2017.

Antonia Bembo was a native of Venice but spent most of her composing career in France. She maintained a consistent relationship with King Louis XIV and his family, who respected her first for her beautiful singing voice and later for her compositional skills. Six volumes of Bembo's music survive in manuscript at the Bibliothèque nationale de France as the Produzioni Armoniche. She wrote an opera called L'Ercole amante (1707), to a libretto by Francesco Buti.

Céline Ricci – Founder and Director of Ars Minerva, Kelly Savage – Harpsichordist, Aura Veruni,Soprano -Kindra Scharich – Mezzo-Soprano

Pieces: Ha Que l’absence, Habbi Pietà di Me, Hyllo il Mio Bene è Morto – From her Opera Ercole Amante, which has never been fully performed.

Discover how Entropy made Ermelinda's backdrops -- her inspirations and the process she followed.
Inspired by the murals of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco, as well as the Chicano Mural Movement, Entropy started creating murals in public spaces. Her PhD studies took her to San Francisco, where the mural tradition is passed down from generation to generation. She has been painting community murals for more than 10 years for organizations in Germany and the US. Her works can be found in public schools, hospitals, libraries and community centers.

Join Ars Minerva's Founder and Artistic Executive Director Céline Ricci on a journey that starts with casually looking at an antique opera manuscript, and then almost magically bring the opera to the stage!

Céline stage directed Ars Minerva's modern world premieres of La Cleopatra, The Amazons in the Fortunate Isles, La Circe, Ifigenia in Aulide and Ermelinda. She will stage Messalina for Ars Minerva in 2021. Her recent staging of Freschi's Ermelinda garnered great critical praise: "Ars Minerva revives an unknown baroque opera with beauty and style", Joshua Kosman - The San Francisco Chronicle.