^{FIRST PUBLISHED 08 MAY 2025}

Bellot Ensemble performs Barbara Strozzi's 'Che si può fare', Op. 8 No. 6. This haunting work features on the group's debut album, Cupid's Ground Bass, which explores the extremities of love, through the groundbreaking works of 17th-Century Italy, highlighting both the vocal and instrumental innovations of the time. Bellot Ensemble will present their debut album programme in concert on 12 July as part of the Oxford Festival of the Arts EARLY MUSIC DAY in collaboration with Continuo Foundation.

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Lucine Musaelian - Soprano & Viola da Gamba
Edmund Taylor - Violin
Daniel Murphy - Theorbo
Matthew Brown - Harpsichord
Tim Macklin - Videography

Che si può fare?
Le stelle rubelle
Non hanno pietà.
Che s'el cielo non dà
Un influsso di pace al mio penare,
Che si può fare?

Che si può dire?
Da gl'astri disastri
Mi piovano ogn'hor;
Che le perfido amor
Un respiro diniega al mio martire,
Che si può dire?

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What can you do?
The stars, intractable,
have no pity.
Since the gods don't give a measure of peace in my suffering,
what can I do?

What can you say?
From the heavens disasters
keep raining down on me;
Since that treacherous Cupid
denies respite to my torture,
what can I say?