Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson will premiere Henry's Amore e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa ("Love and the gentle heart are one and the same") at the 2019 Berkshire High Peaks Music Festival in Great Barrington, MA.
Henry wrote the piece especially for the wedding of two special friends. The ceremony was held in Florence, Italy. So what better text could he set than a love sonnet from La vita nuova by Dante, the Florentine philosopher-poet par excellence?
Sung in the original Italian, it is scored as a chamber piece, using a string quintet supported by piano, but it is every bit as effective sung unaccompanied, or accompanied by a single piano or organ.