Monteverdi – Ohime ch’io cado
A deliriously joyful performance by Philippe Jaroussky, Christina Pluhar and her group L’Arpeggiata – you have to make sure you watch past the first 40 seconds…
The EXAUDI Italian Madrigal Book
EXAUDI examine the expressive heights of Italian madrigal writing, both old and (very) new.
Renaissance: Lamenta
The rich spread of sixteenth century choral music in miniature, in a short concert given by five singers from Renaissance: Camilla Harris, Jessica Gillingwater, Hugo Hymas, David Le Prevost and Ben Rowarth.
Coming soon: Monteverdi L’Orfeo
Exciting news from Durham Opera Ensemble for early music fans. In collaboration with David Stancliffe and a professional period instrument orchestra, they’ll be performing Monteverdi’s L‘Orfeo on 28 June – I’m not sure of the venue yet, but put it in your diary and watch this space.
Poppea and Nero: a dangerous liaison
If you’ve been following my series of posts about the Venetian operas that ETO are bringing to Durham next week, you’ll remember I said that at the end of Agrippina everything ended happily. Well, not for long, because in terms of plot, Handel’s opera is just a prequel to Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea and this time, things […]
ETO Venetian opera
Baroque opera has been a surprisingly recent discovery for me. It’s so obviously the sort of thing I would like — there’s an intoxicating mix of passion, bad behaviour, sex, tragedy, strong female characters, lots of semiquavers, and, sometimes, recorders — that I wonder what took me so long. There’s more of it about these […]
The full 1610 Monteverdi
In 1610 Monteverdi published a collection of music for Pope Paul V titled Sanctissimae Virgini Missa senis vocubis ad Ecclesiarum Choros ac Vespere pluribus decantandae – “A Mass of the Blessed Virgin for six voices suitable for church choirs and Vespers music for more voices” and it so happened that I heard all of the […]
