The program titled “Music for the Forty Hours” will feature villancicos by maestri di capilla of Zamora Cathedral from the second half of the 17th century. Research conducted by the festival’s director, Alberto Martín, has led to the reconstruction of the baroque scenography – dating from between 1704 and 1739 – which accompanied the celebration.

This consisted of large sets and stage machinery, as well as the sermons containing references to the “trino lazo”, which metaphorically referred to the Cross, Sepulchre and Eucharist as forms of union with God. Apart from the baroque scenography, the concert will be accompanied by period costumes. The rest of the concerts are also up to the festival’s usual exceptional standard.

On 17 March Gerard Lesné’s Il Seminario Musicale will perform Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus; on 18 March Marcel Pèrés’s Ensemble Organum will present the program “The Song of the Templars” with music about the Holy Sepulchre from the 12th century. On 24 March the Ensemble Pierre Robert, conducted by Frederic Desenclos, will perform Charpentier’s Méditations pour le Carême.

And on 25 March the Purcell Quartet Ensemble –Emma Kirkby, soprano, Michael Chance, countertenor, Charles Daniels, tenor and Peter Harvey, bass – will perform two of Bach’s Lutheran Masses.