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On the anniversary of his death, Musica Antica Rotherhithe perform Francesco Cavalli’s (1602 – 1676) Requiem, written in the final weeks of his life with the express intention of it being sung at his funeral, and in his memory at his burial place in the Church of San Lorenzo, Venice, thereafter.​

In the 1650s, Cavalli held pride of place as the world’s most succesful composer of opera, and his Requiem binds all his secular talents as a dramatist in a sacred setting, resulting in music that is intensely moving, yet also beautiful in its understated simplicity.

Alongside the Requiem will feature a range of music for voices and continuo, from Luigi Rossi’s heart-wrenching cantata Disperar di se stesso and motets by his teacher Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi, to a rarely-heard masterpiece of the late renaissance –  Ludovicus Episcopius’ Ghequetst Ben Ic Van Binnen.