The “Italian Seicento” witnessed the birth of the opera and had a lasting effect of what came to define music, as we know it today. And it was in the repertoire of music for solo voice that composers of the early seventeenth century more easily found the freedom of declamation and emotional objectivity.

In this period of musical experience, a great musical achievement was the discovery and development of ways of communicating the ‘extreme affections, ranging from violent pain to exuberant joy.’

“…l’oratione sia padrone del armonia e non serva” (“the words are the mistress of the harmony and not the servant”)

Winner of the “Air Europa Classical Act of the Year Award 2013”, lyric coloratura soprano Gabriella Di Laccio enjoys an international career that spans the genres of opera, oratorio and chamber music. Equally at home on the recital stage, Gabriella performs regularly as a solo recitalist and as a member of various chamber groups and has appeared in a number of major London platforms including Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Megaron Opera House, St John’s Smith Square, Banqueting House Whitehall, Théâtre des Variétés Mônaco.

In November 2018, she was listed as one of the BBC’s 100 most inspirational and influential women in the world.