Fringe Day Live. Young Artists’ Stage. Antonio Fresi | Festival Banchetto musicale

17 October 2026, 7 pm
Montis Magia LOFT Climbing Centre
(Vytenio g. 50B, Vilnius)

Fringe Day Live
Young Artists’ Stage

THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY
Marking the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland

Antonio Fresi on lute (Italy)

This year, the music world is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland (1563–1626), one of the most celebrated composers of lute music from the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. The programme The Anatomy of Melancholy by lutenist Antonio Fresi explores one of the most striking features of Dowland’s work – melancholy. The concept behind the concert is linked to Robert Burton’s work The Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 1621, in which melancholy is explored as a universal human condition, encompassing everything from the anguish of love to existential anxiety and loss. The work by Burton provides a unique cultural and intellectual context for understanding Dowland’s music: both composers were associated with London and Oxford, and both took a keen interest in melancholy. In Dowland’s music, it takes on many forms: it becomes an elegiac contemplation, a dance, a dream or a deeply personal confession.

Antonio Fresi is an Italian lutenist born in Sardinia who has dedicated his musical career to Renaissance and Baroque music. He began learning to play the guitar and, alongside this, went on to study the Renaissance lute and the historical performance practice of 16th-century repertoire at the La rosa di Calliope school. Since 2022, he has been continuing his lute studies at the Cristóbal Galán Academy of Early Music.

Fresi has taken part in national and international competitions and early music masterclasses. As a lutenist, he participated in courses organised by the Sicilian Baroque Orchestra and was accepted into the Monteverdi Academy, where he studied under Mauro Borgioni, Antonio Greco and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. He has performed at the Monteverdi Festival in Cremona, the Syracuse Baroque Week, the Note Senza Tempo International Early Music Festival, Onde Musicali sul Lago d’Iseo and other events.

The performer was also part of a project dedicated to discovering and performing unpublished works by Alessandro Scarlatti, and has collaborated with the ensembles Dolci Accenti and Hof-Musici from Prague. Together with Cyntia Franchini, he founded the ensemble Florilegii Musici, with which he explores and performs 17th-century music.

Programme

John Dowland (1563–1626)

Semper Dowland, semper dolens
Farewell
Fancy
A Dream
Tarleton’s Resurrection