Torquato Tasso
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Catherine Bott explores the life and musical settings of the work of the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, who was one of the most widely read writers in 16th Century Europe. His words were set by the great composers of the day and for many centuries after his death, but he was a troubled man who suffered from mental illness and died just days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Featuring Tasso settings from Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Handel among others.
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