Entirely. I enjoy great freedom thanks to the confidence shown in me by the founder of Opus 111, Yolanta Skura. I’m responsible for initially choosing the scores, and then I appeal at once for help on the historical and musicological front to people like Dinko Fabris. In Naples we now have the Early Music Centre, where we work, practice, and give training courses and seminars.

I have, for instance, excellent memories of the recording of Provenzale’s Vespers, which came out last September. We had to reconstruct a liturgical celebration for the oratory of the Girolomini Fathers in Naples. The work is typical of the genius of Provenzale, and is also a perfect illustration of that singularity which makes Naples such an individual phenomenon in the panorama of Italian Baroque. The project was given a scientific blessing by the director of the Girolomini Oratory Library. The musical archives we worked with are owned by the order, and are not open to the general public. In them lies the musical heritage of Baroque Naples. They are an absolute godsend. It was there that I also discovered the dazzling scores of Caresana. Costumes were worn at those performances for the Girolomini Oratory, and there was a semi-scenic arrangement that today we would term an acting space. Provenzale’s Vespers give a precise idea of the explosion of musical fervour in 17th century Naples, the city of the five hundred churches.

What is the history of Naples in the 17th century? Who are its unrecognised geniuses, and what is its tradition?

First of all, there is an old school represented by Carlo Gesualdo, who composed responsoriæ and other forms of sacred music alongside his madrigals. Gesualdo’s presence in Naples is documented, for his family had the custom of taking up holiday residence in one or another of the city’s palaces. The next figure to dominate musical production was Pomponio Nenna, who belonged to the circle of musicians influenced by Monteverdi’s seconda prattica. I made a recording for Symphonia of the Vespers written by his brother Sabino. The use of the basso continuo is a stylistic feature of both.

Of the composers of the second half of the 17th century, Giovanni Salvatore, the master of Provenzale, needs to be restored to his rightful place. Salvatore’s works are knowledgeable and aesthetically pleasing. Finally, we come to Provenzale and his pupil Veneziano, whose Lamentations we are planning to record. Veneziano is the last link in the Seicento, and accompanies the transition from the 17th to the 18th century.