Isabella d’Este, the Marchesa of Mantua, was a superstar of the Renaissance. Educated, humanistic, artistically accomplished, a collector of books and art, and a wife who governed Mantua when her husband was away, often at war (or dallying with the notorious Lucrezia Borgia), Isabella lived from 1484 to 1539, and was more with it than most of us are today. The Newberry Consort, an early music group that excels in imaginative programming, offers what it calls “a prismatic soundscape of Isabella d’Este’s life and times.” Expect songs, fantasies, ricercars, pavanes, and more. —L.J.