Festival Stuttgart Barock 2026 | Florenz - Festival-Pass

Thanks to trade and banking, Florence developed into one of Italy's leading cities in the High Middle Ages and made a name for itself musically in the 14th century with composers such as Landini. It experienced its cultural heyday under the Medici family, who acquired great wealth through cloth trading and banking and played a decisive role in shaping the city's politics and culture in the 15th century with personalities such as Cosimo il Vecchio and Lorenzo il Magnifico. The Medici promoted architecture, art, humanism and music and contributed to the development of music history with sumptuous festivals, intermedia and the first surviving opera L'Euridice (1600). Important humanists and musicians such as Galileo, Peri, Caccini and others worked in their service. Even after the cultural peak, musical life remained lively, for example with the first public opera house in 1656. Cosimo III, his musically gifted son Ferdinando and the last Medici Grand Duke Gian Gastone continued the legacy. After the family died out, Anna Maria Luisa's legacy ensured the preservation of Florence's cultural heritage.

The Fedtival begins with an opening concert in the Leonhard Church with works by Boccherini and Zelenka, performed by the Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra Stuttgart under Frieder Bernius. Further concerts will present music by Veracini, Francesca Caccini, Monteverdi and Tartini, among others, performed by renowned ensembles such as Il Rosario, the Utopia Ensemble and the London Handel Players. A literary-musical reading about Galileo Galilei and the closing concert by Il gusto barocco with the opera La Dafne by Marco da Gagliano round off the program.