La dolce maniera (www.ladolcemaniera.com) is a vocal ensemble specialized in performing music of the seventeenth century, born at the Music Academy in Strasbourg (France), where Luigi Gaggero (music director of the ensemble) and Silvana Torto (soprano) are teaching.

Its interpretation of Baroque music - as the name of the Ensemble “the gentle way” suggests - is characterized by a constant search for beauty and sweetness of sound, as well as the exact restitution of prosody generated by Italian poetry and music of that time.

The second specificity of “La dolce maniera” is to play the madrigal repertoire using “exclusive” scores: these new transcriptions in modern notation, observing every detail of the original manuscripts, highlight the finest nuances of this music, as in a Mannerist painting.

Indeed, “La dolce maniera” also means "the beloved Mannerism", from which come the rhythmic energy and the theatricality of baroque music, as well as the strong contrasts, such the “chiaroscuro” and the vivid colors.

“La dolce maniera” would like to record and release its first CD, devoted to the Fourth Book of Madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the greatest masterpieces of Western music.

Cecile and Silvana Lohmüller Torto, sopranos

Sarah Dewald, mezzo-soprano

Stephan Olry, tenor

Benedict Rameau, baritone

Luigi Gaggero, musical direction

You can find more pictures and videos of La dolce maniera in the French version of this text. Click on the French flag at the top right!!

La dolce maniera et Monteverdi !

The publications