Date: Saturday, September 26, 2026
Location: Historic Alberta House, Portland, Oregon
Doors: 7:00
Performance: 7:30
Run time: 1:30-1:45 
Tickets: Advance reservation recommended. Seating is limited.

Cast & Performers

Julie Le Grove — Hermes; Diotima of Mantinea
Natalie Ingrisano — soprano; Venus
Madeline Ross — soprano; Poppea; Coro di Amori
Loren Masánqué — countertenor; Apollo; Eros; Timaeus of Locri; Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Thomas Albanese — tenor; Orfeo; Nerone; Marsilio Ficino; Iamblichus; Alcibiades

Daniel Frizzell — theorbo / continuo
String Trio — two violins and cello

La Primavera

A Night of Renaissance Music, Myth, and Philosophy

Step inside Botticelli’s Primavera for an intimate evening of Renaissance music, myth, and philosophy. Guided by Hermes, this performance moves through the spirit of the painting.

Our project began from a question at the heart of the Renaissance: what if music, poetry, myth, and philosophy were not separate, but a practice that renews the soul? Inspired by the world of the Florentine Camerata—the musical Academy whose experiments in ancient drama, song, and expressive speech helped give birth to early opera—and by the Neoplatonic revival of Plato, Ficino, Pico, and the ancient theologians, La Primavera explores music as a spiritual and philosophical exercise.

Featuring live music, including works by Monteverdi and his contemporaries, La Primavera combines song, projected image, and short philosophical interludes inspired by Plato, Ficino, Pico, Iamblichus, Diotima, Aphrodite, and Eros. These interludes are not lectures, but listening invitations—brief moments that prepare the audience to hear the music and see the painting differently.

La Primavera, Palinode's first public performance in Portland, has been developed through a series of workshops that brought together professional musicians and philosophers, drawing upon a form of vital play where philosophy, music, image, myth and live performance come together as a shared ritual of renewal. Come ready to listen, look, and enter the garden.

Program Preview

Prelude & Philosophical Introduction: Entering the Garden of Remembrance and Renewal

• Music: Claudio Monteverdi, L’Orfeo Toccata and ritornelli
• Philosophy: Hermes, Timaeus, Marsilio Ficino

I. Winter’s End, Zephyr’s Return: Cloris’s Initiation into the Mysteries of Love

• Music: Claudio Monteverdi, "Zefiro torna” from L'Orfeo; “Lamento d’Arianna” from L’Arianna
• Philosophical Interlude: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

II. The Blossoming Spring: Flora’s Abundance

• Music:, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, “O primavera”;  Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Instrumental "canario"
• Philosophical Interlude: Iamblichus

III. The Heat of Summer: The Graces Inspiring Us to Love

• Music: Barbara Strozzi, “Le tre Gratie à Venere”
• Philosophical Interlude: Alcibiades 

IV. Hermes & Diotima’s Call to the Ascension of More Than Apollo

• Music: Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Toccata seconda arpeggiata; Claudio Monteverdi, “Parch'a lo sdegno” from L’Orfeo
• Philosophical Interlude: Diotima of Mantinea

V. The Ever Fruitful Present: Aphrodite Moves Eros

• Music: Claudio Monteverdi, “Scendiam, scendiam” from L’incoronazione di Poppea'; “Pur ti miro” from L’incoronazione di Poppea; L’Orfeo ritornello
• Philosophical Interlude: Diotima of Matinea

About Palinode

Palinode creates public humanities experiences where philosophy, art, music, performance, and humane technology come together. Our workshop-performance model turns deep ideas into shared public arts and humanities productions: concerts, salons, performances, publications, courses, and living spaces for meaningful living. La Primavera is the first public presentation of this model in Portland.

To explore Palinode's Khora Platform that is used in the performance, click here!