L’Avventura London brings history to life through imaginative, emotionally compelling performances that speak directly to today’s audiences. Our Signature Projects open doors to extraordinary musical worlds—some long forgotten, others misunderstood—and reimagine them with insight, energy, and artistry. Each project blends rigorous research with vibrant performance, often in collaboration with remarkable artists from across musical traditions.
Below is a selection of our core Signature Projects.
“Superb and very, very sexy.” – Limelight
“A revelation… Ravishing.” – Early Music Today
“An original sort of music… Two centuries later, that estimate still holds true.” – Sinfini.com
In his journals, the English novelist and traveller William Beckford described the most seductive and beguiling songs he heard in Portugal – modinhas – as “the most voluptuous imaginable… calculated to inspire profane deliriums.”
This groundbreaking programme features Portuguese and Brazilian modinhas alongside expressive instrumental works of the eighteenth century. Originally composed for virtuoso singers and elite guitarists, these songs blend Indigenous Brazilian, African, and Portuguese musical traditions into a genre defined by captivating melodies, unusual rhythms, and radiant instrumental colours.
Possibly first shaped by Domingos Caldas Barbosa, the Jesuit-educated son of a Portuguese father and a liberated Angolan mother, the modinha soon captivated Lisbon’s elite. L’Avventura London brings together exquisite music by António da Silva Leite, Marcos Portugal, Carlos Seixas, Pedro António Avondano, and more.
Featuring sopranos Sandra Medeiros and Joana Seara.
Recording: Profane Deliriums (Hyperion Records, CDA67904)
Orpheus Caledonius explores eighteenth-century Scotland at a time when Scottish melodies became a national craze. William Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius (1725) – the first printed collection of Scottish songs with their tunes—ignited this cultural moment. Its melodies later inspired the poetry of Robert Burns.
Despite its significance, the full collection had never been revived in modern performance. In this ambitious project, Žak Ozmo and L’Avventura London bring it to life through an unprecedented collaboration with leading voices of contemporary Scottish folk.
Partnering with the iconic folk band Old Blind Dogs and featuring two-time “Scots Singer of the Year” Siobhan Miller, the project unites baroque performance with living folk tradition. Baroque strings, recorders, lutes, cittern, and baroque guitar merge with pipes, whistles, fiddles, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and percussion.
The result is an exhilarating blend of historically informed performance and modern folk vitality, illuminating beloved ballads, haunting airs, and toe-tapping dances.
Transatlantic Legacies uncovers extraordinary repertoire from the archives of the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, a major musical centre of seventeenth-century Portugal. Its monks—trained as singers, composers, instrumentalists, and instrument makers—left behind a remarkable collection of manuscripts.
Within them lie villancicos and romances: sacred and secular vocal works whose expressive freedom often challenged Church restraint. Their sensual poetry, arresting melodies, and rhythmic excitement made them so captivating that ecclesiastical authorities regularly attempted to curb their performance in nearby convents.
Especially striking are the villancicos negros, shaped by the musical traditions of enslaved and free Africans and Afro-Brazilians, whose rhythms and harmonies transformed Iberian sacred music.
In this project, Žak Ozmo and L’Avventura London present the richest examples from the Coimbra manuscripts, interwoven with dances of Iberian and African origin that circulated across Portugal and Brazil.
Featuring Portuguese singers Sandra Medeiros, Ana Ferro, Bruno Almeida, and Manuel Rebelo, alongside world-renowned kora virtuoso Tunde Jegede.
Together they illuminate deep musical currents connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
“Terrifically animated, wonderful energy… gorgeous!” – BBC Radio 3
“A fascinating insight into Handel and the English ballad opera tradition.” – Gramophone
“An idea that should have been thought of a long time ago…” – American Record Guide
“Engaging, entertaining… an enormous amount of atmosphere and character.” – Opera News
Handel in the Playhouse draws on recent scholarship revealing how Handel’s music infiltrated the everyday theatrical culture of eighteenth-century London. During the 1730s, playwrights—including acclaimed novelist Henry Fielding—created hugely successful ballad operas, comic musical dramas that freely borrowed melodies from Handel’s fashionable operas and instrumental works. New English texts were added, transforming these tunes into something entirely different.
These ballad operas—such as the legendary Beggar’s Opera—were performed far more often than Handel’s own operas, dominating London theatres and flourishing in the provinces for over a century. Scholars now agree that it was these playful reworkings, not the originals, through which British middle-class audiences first encountered Handel’s music.
Their popularity played a key role in establishing Handel as a national composer, long before his English oratorios became fashionable. In many ways, it was the popular stage—not the opera house—that made Handel a household name.
For this programme, Žak Ozmo has reconstructed and arranged the most vivid and entertaining settings of Handel’s tunes from surviving ballad operas. Performed with L’Avventura London’s signature vitality, the results have earned significant international acclaim.
Recording: Handel in the Playhouse
(Opella Nova Records / Harmonia Mundi, ONCD015)
“Terrifically animated, wonderful energy… gorgeous!” – BBC Radio 3
“Sensitive musicianship… admirable understanding of Baroque style.” – Gramophone
“Outstanding playing.” – Early Music Review
“An invigorating delight… beautiful playing for beautiful music.” – American Record Guide
In 1713, composer-critic Johann Mattheson observed that musicians went to Italy and France to learn—but to England to prosper. In the decades following the Restoration, London became a magnet for Italian virtuosi whose influence shaped British musical taste.
An Italian Rant! explores this fertile cultural exchange, featuring vibrant performances of music by Corelli, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Cervetto, Paradisi, and others.
Programme highlights include:
This programme celebrates the brilliance, flair, and cosmopolitan character that Italian musicians brought to eighteenth-century Britain.
Recording: An Italian Rant!
(Opella Nova Records / Harmonia Mundi, ONCD015)
A tale of seduction, delusion, and financial corruption, The Lottery revives one of the eighteenth century’s sharpest, funniest theatrical satires for modern audiences.
“A living document… a biting satire for the 21st century” – BBC Radio 3
“Vibrant and highly entertaining… an ensemble at the top of its game” – BSECS
“Stylish playing… cynical anarchy… excellent” – Opera Now / Early Music Review
A New Reconstruction of a Lost Musical Hit
Long believed to survive only as text, Fielding’s 1732 blockbuster has been revived through meticulous reconstruction by Žak Ozmo and ballad-opera specialist Vanessa L. Rogers. Drawing on archival remnants, they restore the opera’s full dramatic and musical vibrancy.
About Ballad Opera & Henry Fielding
Ballad opera—the most popular entertainment of eighteenth-century England—is the ancestor of today’s musical theatre. It combined spoken drama with songs using familiar tunes (including many by Handel, Purcell, and Corelli), delivering satire with irresistible musical appeal.
Novelist and playwright Henry Fielding (1707–1754) wrote eleven ballad operas; The Lottery was among his greatest successes.
Synopsis
Chloe, a naive country girl, believes she has won a £10,000 lottery prize and travels to London to enjoy her imagined fortune.
Two corrupt brothers –Mr Stocks and Jack (“Lord Lace”) – plot to deceive her, with Jack posing as a gentleman to seduce and marry her for her supposed wealth.
When the winning numbers reveal her ticket is worthless, “Lord Lace” abandons her. Shamed and penniless, she returns to Squire Lovemore, the loyal admirer she had rejected.