Monteverdi 450 at the V&A - programme

at the V&A MONTEVERDI 450

Friday 15 December, 2017

in memory of kevin lavery

This evening’s performance is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and loyal supporter, Kevin Lavery.

MONTEVERDI 450 at the V&A

As part of Victoria and Albert museum’s Opera: Passion, Power & Politics exhibition, this very special evening will see Sir John Eliot Gardiner. the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists conclude a triumphant year celebrating Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary.

The hugely successful Monteverdi 450 Trilogy tour took international audiences by storm, commencing fittingly at Venice’s breathtaking Teatro La Fenice and then travelling onwards to European festivals from Edinburgh to Salzburg and Lucerne before concluding in Chicago and New York.

trilogy tour dates 2017

10 Apr | 8.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

Festival de Pâques, Aix-en-Provence

12 Apr | 7.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

Colston Hall, Bristol

03 May | 8.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

Palau de la Música, Barcelona

08 May | 7.30pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

28 May | 7.30pm L’Orfeo

Colston Hall, Bristol

16 Jun | 7pm L’Orfeo

17 Jun | 3.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

18 Jun | 3.30pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

19 Jun | 7pm L’Orfeo

20 Jun | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

21 Jun | 7pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Teatro La Fenice, Venice

26 Jul | 7pm L’Orfeo

28 Jul | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

29 Jul | 7pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Salzburg Festival

14 Aug | 7pm L’Orfeo

15 Aug | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

17 Aug | 7pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Aug | 7.30pm L’Orfeo

25 Aug | 6.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

26 Aug | 6.30pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Lucerne Festival

02 Sep | 7pm L’Orfeo

03 Sep | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

05 Sep | 7pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Musikfest Berlin

07 Sep | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

08 Sep | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

Wratislavia Cantans Festival

16 Sep | 7.30pm L’Orfeo

17 Sep | 7.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

18 Sep | 7.30pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Philharmonie de Paris

12 Oct | 7.30pm L’Orfeo

13 Oct | 7.30pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

15 Oct | 2pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

Harris Theater, Chicago

18 Oct | 7pm L’Orfeo

19 Oct | 7pm Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

21 Oct | 7pm L’incoronazione di Poppea

White Light Festival, New York

Tonight, this curtain-closing concert will reunite the MCO ensembles with the tour’s celebrated cast of world-class singers to perform highlights from the trilogy in the Raphael Cartoon Gallery, where 50 years ago Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the newly formed Monteverdi Choir marked the composer’s 400th anniversary.

Monteverdi has been a constant presence in my life since I was a small boy. The older I get the more I find his music life-affirming, endlessly fascinating and utterly glorious. He is the composer with whom I started my career as a conductor and whose music has marked all its milestones and turning points. When in my early twenties I started out as a musician, pestering, but also in some cases convincing my contemporaries about the importance of Monteverdi, I felt I was one of a very small band of like-minded enthusiasts. For us Monteverdi epitomised all that was most alluring, exotic and at the same time most modern about music of the early 17th century. He demanded our attention as much through the passionate utterance as through the glorious colours of his music with which it was painted, whether intended for the church, the chamber of the theatre. Dip your toe in his musical stream and you recognise it as a living, breathing organism.

We became hooked - much in the same way that people are drawn to his contemporaries - Shakespeare, Donne, Rubens and Caravaggio - humanists to a man. All these great creative artists lived through those turbulent years either side of 1600, and each of them made seminal contributions to that ferment of ideas which turned the intellectual life of Europe upside down.

Yet it is worth remembering that fifty years ago in the quatercentenary of his birth Monteverdi was hardly a household name, surprising as it may seem. Keen music lovers might have sung or heard a couple of his madrigals, but only two of his operas had been professionally staged in Britain (L’incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne in 1962 and L’Orfeo at Sadlers Wells Opera in 1964). Clearly a lot more needed to be done to establish his credentials. I remember approaching the then director of the V&A, who warmed to the idea of celebrating Monteverdi’s 400th birthday in the beautiful Raphael Cartoon Gallery. The selection of his secular and dramatic music we put together found a receptive audience and seemed to cause quite a stir.

‘If all the quatercentenary celebrations of Monteverdi’s birth are on this level, we shall have a year to remember.’

Ronald Crichton - Financial Times

‘The concert was overwhelming. The cumulative effect of so ripe a musical pot-pourri left one breathless. Especially when all was sung with such style and conviction by the choir.’

Gillian Widdicombe - The Times

Fifty years on Monteverdi’s place in the musical landscape has changed immeasurably. At least two of his operas crop up quite

regularly in staged productions around the world while his Vespers are trotted out almost as regularly as Bach’s Passions, with widely differing approaches. Yet, surprisingly, it is only in the past three decades that Monteverdi’s stature has been widely recognised by his countrymen. There are now several expert groups of performers in Italy today dedicated to exploring his path-breaking meshing of words and music when delivered in his and their mother tongue - a benchmark set and to be greatly welcomed. Yet there is so much more still to be done - via a judicious blend of scholarship and performance. Monteverdi’s reflections on the social fabric of his day apply as much to now as to the 1600s.

For this year, which marks the 450th anniversary of his birth, we set ourselves the task of mounting all three of his surviving opera back to back in enhanced and dramatised concert performances. Our aim was to achieve a significant break-through in public awareness of Monteverdi’s part in this 17th century revolution and to introduce a fresh and younger audience to the immense expressive range and starting modernity of his aesthetic experiments. In the seven months since April we have given 33 performances of his three surviving operas in halls and theatres across Europe and the USA and reaching an audience of over 70,000.

From my personal perspective it has been an unmitigated joy to spend a large part of this year exploring these great works in eight different countries with a wonderful, hand-picked international cast of singers and expert players drawn from eleven different nationalities, many (but alas not all) of whom have reconvened here tonight for our final 450th birthday tribute to Monteverdi. As one of the musicians wrote to me recently, the whole tour felt like sharing a journey with one big family

We have constructed a sequence from the music we have been performing on tour - oddly similar to the one I put together for the quatercentenary concert here in 1967 - enough, we hope, for you to savour some of the excitement, the passion and even the trepidation we have discovered in his music over the past seven months - and dreamt about over the past fifty years.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner Artistic Director and Founder

a brief history

Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) was the most significant composer in early 17th century Italy. His music moves away from the vocal polyphony of the Renaissance towards more emotional styles for solo voice(s) and accompaniment typical of the musical Baroque. His nine books of madrigals, three of church music and three surviving operas both summarised and revolutionised the field.

Born in Cremona, he was taught there by the cathedral’s Director of Music, Marc’ Antonio Ingegneri. In 1590 he moved to Mantua as court musician of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, to whom he then became Maestro della Musica in 1601.

Monteverdi’s Fourth (1603) and Fifth (1605) books of madrigals reflect new developments influenced by the poetry of Tasso and Guarini. They were also highly controversial for their breaking of the traditional rules of counterpoint, harmony, and mode.

Monteverdi justified these licenses by the notion of a ‘second practice’ (seconda pratica) which, in contrast to the prima pratica of the Renaissance masters, made the music subservient to the expressive demands of the text.

His first opera, L’Orfeo (1607), placed a genre newly invented in Florence on a secure musical and dramatic footing. His second, Arianna (1608), is now lost save for its famous lament for the title-character that was widely performed and imitated. The mammoth Sanctissimae Virgini missa senis vocibus, published two years later (the ‘1610 Vespers’) is a masterpiece of the various current styles of church music.

Soon after the death of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in early 1612, Monteverdi was discharged from Mantuan service. He moved to Venice the next year to take up the prestigious post of Director of Music at St Mark’s Basilica. Now enjoying the fame and security of perhaps the leading musical

position in Italy he there embedded himself firmly in Venetian circles, composing for the city’s churches, confraternities, and private patrons. He also developed associations with the Habsburg court in Vienna. Emperor Ferdinand III was hence the dedicatee of the Eighth Book of Madrigals (1638), the Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi, that appeared during a temporary lull in the Thirty Years’ War. Late in life, Monteverdi returned to the theatre, taking advantage of the recent development of ‘public’ opera in Venice to produce Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1640), Le nozze d’Enea in Lavinia(1641; now lost), and L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643). His three surviving operas are the earliest to have a sure place in the repertory today. L’Orfeo sits squarely within the tradition of late-Renaissance court entertainments, rich in visual and sonic splendour, and clearly designed to show off the virtuoso singers and instrumentalists employed by the Gonzagas in Mantua. Monteverdi takes the new style of recitative music recently developed in Florence but turns it to far more dramatic ends, also vying to find a way of representing the singing of Orpheus, the greatest musician of Classical Antiquity. Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’incoronazione di Poppea, on the other hand, cater to the fast-burgeoning opera industry in Venice: the characters are more human, and their emotions more visceral. Here, too, Monteverdi exploits new styles of aria with more tuneful melodies and turns them to dramatic ends, whether to represent Penelope’s joy at recovering her long-lost husband Ulysses or, if in more troublesome fashion, to represent the nefarious love affair between Roman Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea. For all the power of the music, the moral dilemmas are clear, and those same dilemmas go on to animate the history of opera for centuries to come.

Tim Carter, Professor of Music, University of North Carolina

Monteverdi by Bernardo Strozzi

Private Collection of Judith McCartin Scheide - Princeton, New Jersey, USA

The programme cover from Monteverdi Choir’s 1967 quatercentenary concert at the V&A.

Monteverdi Choir programme page with concert repertoire for V&A performances in 1967.

MONTEVERDI 450 at the V&A evening

programme

Tonight’s event will be in two parts: a series of promenade performances in selected galleries around the museum from 6.30pm, followed by a seated concert in the Raphael Cartoon Gallery at 7.30pm.

promenade performances

Grand Entrance

L’Orfeo - Toccata

Medieval & Renaissance Gallery

Vespers - ‘Duo seraphim’

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria - ‘Dormo ancora’

Cast Court

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria - Coro di Feaci

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria - Coro in cielo, coro marittimo

South East Asia Gallery

Selva morale e spirituale

‘Chi vol che m’innamori’

South Asia Room

Vespers - ‘Pulchra es’

raphael gallery concert

L’Orfeo Toccata

‘Rosa del ciel’

‘Ecco pur ch’a voi ritorno’

‘Possente spirto’

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria

‘Come, oh come mal si salva’

‘All’ allegrezze’

‘Ogni vostra ragion’

L’incoronazione di poppea

‘Ahi, perfida Poppea’

‘Adagiati Poppea’

‘Pur ti miro’

Rick Fisher Lighting Designer

John Eliot Gardiner

Conductor & Director

Monteverdi Choir

English Baroque Soloists

promenade performances

6.30pm

1 Grand Entrance

Toccata - L’Orfeo

2 & 3 Medieval & Renaissance gallery

‘Duo seraphim’ - Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)

‘Dormo ancora’ - Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Act 1, Sc. 7

4 Cast Court

Coro di Feaci - Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Act 1 Sc. 6

Coro in cielo/Coro marittimo - Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Act 3 Sc. 7

5 South East Asia Gallery

‘Chi vol che m’innamori’ - Selva morale e spirituale

6 South Asia Room

‘Pulchra es’ - Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)

7 Raphael Cartoon Gallery

Evening concert

The Grand Entrance © Victoria and Albert Museum

1 GRAnd EntRAnCE

Toccata

L’Orfeo English Baroque Soloists

2 MEdIEvAL GALLERy

‘Duo seraphim’

Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)

Peter Davoren, Gareth Treseder, Krystian Adam English Baroque Soloists

Duo Seraphim clamabant alter ad alterum: Sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth: plena est omnis terra gloria eius. Tres sunt qui testimonium dant in coelo: Pater, Verbum et Spiritus Sanctus; et hi tres unum sunt.

Sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus, Sabaoth plena est omnis terra gloria eius.

3 REnAISSAnCE GALLERy

‘Dormo ancora’

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Act 1, Scene 7 Furio Zanasi, English Baroque Soloists

Ulisse

Dormo ancora, o son desto?

Che contrade rimiro?

Qual aria vi respiro?

E che terren calpesto?

Dormo ancora, o son desto?

Chi fece in me, chi fece il sempre dolce e lusinghevol sonno ministro de’ tormenti?

Chi cangiò il mio riposo in ria sventura?

Qual deità de’ dormienti ha cura?

Oh sonno, oh mortal sonno, Fratello della morte altri ti chiama!

Solingo trasportato, deluso ed ingannato, ti conosco ben io, padre d’errori.

Pur degli errori miei son io la colpa.

Ché se l’ombra è del sonno sorella o pur compagna, chi si confida all’ombra, perduto alfin contro ragion si lagna.

Oh dei sempre sdegnati, numi non mai placati contro Ulisse che dorme anco severi, contro l’uman voler sien fermi e forti,

Two seraphim cried to another: Holy, holy is the God of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. There are three that testify in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.

Ulysses

Am I still sleeping or am I awake?

What land is this?

What air do I breathe?

What earth do I walk on?

am I still sleeping or am I awake?

What turned sweet and seductive sleep into a bringer of torment?

Who changed rest into terrible woe?

What god watches over the sleeping?

O sleep, mortal sleep, some call you the brother of death!

Sent to wander alone, deceived and disappointed

I know you well, father of errors.

Yet I am to blame for my own errors

For if the darkness is the sister or companion of sleep, those who trust in the darkness have no right to complain when they are lost.

Gods who are ever angry, gods who are never placated you show no mercy on Ulysses even when he is asleep;

The Medieval Gallery © Victoria and Albert Museum

contro l’uman voler sien fermi e forti, ma non tolgano, ahimè, la pace ai morti.

Feaci ingannatori, voi pur mi prometteste di ricondurmi salvo in Itaca mia patria con le ricchezze mie, co’ miei tesori. Feaci mancatori, or non so come ingrati, mi lasciaste in questa riva aperta, in spiaggia erma e deserta, misero, abbandanato; e vi porta fastosi e per l’aure e per l’onde così enorme peccato!

Se puniti non son sì gravi errori, lascia, Giove, deh, lascia de’ fulmini la cura, ché la legge del caso è più sicura. Sia delle vostre vele, Falsissimi Feaci, sempre Borea nemico, e sian qual piume al vento o scogli in mare le vostre infide navi: leggere agli aquiloni all’aure gravi.

4 CASt

Coro di Feaci

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Act 1 Scene 6

Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists

Coro di Feaci

In questo basso mondo

l’uomo può ciò che vuol.

Tutto fa, ché ‘l ciel del nostro oprar pensier non ha.

Coro in cielo/Coro marittimo

Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Act 3 Scene 7

Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists

Coro in cielo, Coro marittimo

Giove amoroso

fa il ciel pietoso nel perdonar.

Benchè habbia il gelo non men del cielo pietoso è il mar.

Prega, mortal, deh prega, chè sdegnato e pregato un dio si piega.

Let your power stand firm against human will, but do not rob the dead of peace

Deceitful Phaeacians, you promised to take me safely home to Ithaca with my riches and treasure. Lying Phaeacians

How could you leave me on this shore, on this lonely and deserted beach, wretched and abandoned? Proudly you set sail over the waves after such a misdeed. If such a crime goes unpunished, Jove, let lightning strike for the law is more reliable than chance. Most false Phaecians, Let the north wind be always against you Let your treacherous ships be like a plaything on the gusting winds.

Chorus of Phaecians

Down here on earth, man can do as he pleases

He can do anything, for heaven has no thought for our deeds.

Choir in heaven, Choir of the sea

Loving Jove makes the heavens merciful by forgiving. Though icy, no less merciful is the sea.

Pray, mortal, that a god hears your prayers.

COURt

The Cast Court © Victoria and Albert Museum

5

SOUth EASt ASIA GALLERy

‘Chi vol che m’innamori’

Selva morale e spirituale

Carlo Vistoli, Gareth Treseder, Daniel D’Souza

Chi vol che m’innamori

Mi dica almen di che!

Se d’animati fiori, Un fior e che cosa è?

Se de bell’occhi ardenti

Ah! che sian tosto spenti!

La morte, ohimè, m’uccide, Il tempo tutto frange:

Hoggi si ride e poi diman si piange.

Se vol ch’un aureo crine

Mi leghi, e che sarà

Se di gelate brine

Quel or si spargerà?

Le neve d’un bel seno

Ah! vien qual neve meno!

La morte, ohimè, produce Terror ch’el cor m’ingombra.

Hoggi, hoggi siam luce e poi dimani ombra.

Dovro pressar thesori

Se nudo io moriro?

E ricercar gli honori

Che presto io lascero?

In che fondar mia speme

Se giongon l’ore estreme?

Che male, ohimè, si pasce

Di vanitade il core!

Hoggi, hoggi si nasce e poi diman si muore.

6 SOUth ASIA ROOM

‘Pulchra es’

Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)

Francesca Boncompagni, Silvia Frigato English Baroque Soloists

Pulchra es, amica mea, suavis et decora filia Jerusalem. Pulchra es, amica mea, suavis et decora sicut Jerusalem, terribilis sicut castrorum acies ordinata. Averte oculos tuos a me, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt.

Whoever wants me to fall in love, let him at least tell me with what!

If with lively flowers, a flower... what is that?

If with lovely glowing eyes, ah, how soon they close!

For death, alas, destroys me and time shatters everything: today we laugh and tomorrow we weep.

If you want golden tresses to bind me, what will happen if icy frost should spread over that gold?

The snowy-whiteness of a fair breast, Ah, it melts like snow!

Death, alas, induces terror which oppresses my heart. Today we are light, and tomorrow we will be dark.

Am I to cherish treasures if I shall die naked? Or look for honours which I shall soon leave behind? Where shall I set my hope if my final hours are approaching? For foolishly, alas, the heart feeds on vanity. Today we are born and tomorrow we die.

You are beautiful, my love, fair and lovely daughter of Jerusalem. You are beautiful, my love, fair and lovely, as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me.

South Asia Room - Nehru Gallery

© Victoria and Albert Museum

Please take your seats promptly at 7.30pm.

l’orfeo

toccata

English Baroque Soloists

Act 1 - ‘Rosa del ciel’

Orfeo - Krystian Adam | Euridice - Francesca Boncompagni | Chorus

Act 2 - ‘Ecco pur ch’a voi ritorno’

Orfeo - Krystian Adam | Pastori - Francisco Fernandez Rueda, Gareth Treseder |

Chorus

Act 3 - ‘Possente spirto’

il ritorno d’ulisse in patria

Act 1, Sc. 11-13 ‘Come, oh come mal si salva’

Eumete - Francisco Fernandez Rueda | Iro - Robert Burt | Ulisse - Furio Zanasi

Act 2, Sc. 5 ‘All’ allegrezze’

(including excerpt of Tirsi e Clori from 7th Book of Madrigals)

Pisandro - Rory McCleery | Anfinomo - Gareth Treseder| Antinoo - Alex Ashworth

Chorus

Act 3, Sc. 9-10 ‘Ogni vostra ragion’

Penelope - Marianna Pizzolato | Telemaco - Krystian Adam | Ulisse - Furio Zanasi

l’incoronazione di poppea

Act 1, Sc. 1-2 ‘Ahi, perfida Poppea’

Ottone - Carlo Vistoli | Soldato I - Furio Zanasi | Soldato II - Robert Burt

Act 2, Sc. 12-15 ‘Adagiati Poppea’

Arnalta - Reginald Mobley | Amore - Silvia Frigato | Ottone - Carlo Vistoli

Poppea - Francesca Boncompagni

Act 3, Sc 8 ‘Pur ti miro’

Poppea - Francesca Boncompagni | Nerone - Reginald Mobley

L’Orfeo

toccata

Act 1 - ‘Rosa del ciel’

Orfeo

- Krystian Adam

Euridice - Francesca Boncompagni

Orfeo

Rosa del ciel, vita del mondo, e degna prole di lui che l’universo affrena, sol, ch’il tutto circondi e ‘l tutto miri, da gli stellanti giri, dimmi: vedesti mai di me più lieto e fortunato amante?

Fu ben felice il giorno, mio ben, che pria ti vidi, e più felice l’ora che per te sospirai, perch’al mio sospirar tu sospirasti: felicissimo il punto che la candida mano pegno di pura fede a me porgesti. Se tanti cori avessi quant’occhi ha il ciel eterno e quante chiome han questi colli ameni il verde maggio, tutti colmi sarieno e traboccanti di quel piacer ch’oggi mi fa contento.

Euridice

Io non dirò qual sia nel tuo gioir, Orfeo, la gioia mia, che non ho meco il core, ma teco stassi in compagnia d’Amore; chiedilo dunque a lui s’intender brami quanto lieta gioisca e quanto t’ami.

Coro di Ninfe & Pastori

Lasciate i monti, lasciate fonti, ninfe vezzose e liete e in questi prati a i balli usati il bel piè rendete. Qui miri il sole vostre carole più vaghe assai di quelle, ond’à la Luna, la notte bruna, danzano in Ciel le stelle.

Orpheus

Rose of heaven, life of the world, worthy son of the ruler of the universe, o sun, who encircles all and sees all, from your starry orbits, have you ever seen a lover happier than I? It was a happy day when I first saw you, my love; a yet happier day when I sighed for you, for you sighed at my sighs; happiest of all when you gave me your hand as a pledge of pure faith. If I had as many hearts as the sky has stars and these hills have leaves in verdant May they would overflow with the joy that is now mine.

Euridice

I have not the words to say how great is my joy at your rejoicing; my heart is no longer mine; it is with you in the company of Love. Ask Love, therefore, if you wish to know how I rejoice and how much I love you.

Chorus of Nymphs & Shepherds

Leave the hills, leave the springs, smiling, pretty nymphs, and in these meadows let your feet rejoice in dances. Here the sun beholds your steps, prettier than the dancing of the stars in the moonlight of the dusky night.

Vieni, Imeneo, deh, vieni, e la tua face ardente sia quasi un sol nascente ch’apporti a questi amanti i dì sereni, e lunge homai disgombre degli affanni e del duol gli orrori e l’ombre.

Act 2 - ‘Ecco pur ch’a voi ritorno’ Orfeo - Krystian Adam

Pastori - Francisco Fernandez Rueda, Gareth Treseder Monteverdi Choir

Orfeo

Ecco pur ch’a voi ritorno, care selve e piagge amate, da quel sol fatte beate per cui sol mie notti han giorno.

Pastore I

Mira ch’a sé n’alletta l’ombra, Orfeo, di quei faggi, or che infocati raggi Febo dal ciel saetta.

Pastore II

Su quell’erbose sponde posiamci e in vari modi ciascun sua voce snodi al mormorio dell’onde.

Pastore I & Pastore II

In questo prato adorno ogni selvaggio nume sovente ha per costume di far lieto soggiorno. Qui Pan, Dio de’ pastori, s’udì talor dolente rimembrar dolcemente suoi sventurati amori. Qui le Napee vezzose, schiera sempre fiorita, con le candide dita fur viste a coglier rose.

Coro di Ninfe & Pastori Dunque fa degni, Orfeo, del suon della tua lira questi campi ove spira aura d’odor sabeo.

Come, Hymen

Let your glowing torch be like the rising sun. May it bring peaceful days to this loving couple, and chase away the shadows of care and sorrow.

Orpheus

I return to you, dear groves, beloved slopes, blessed by that sun which has turned my night into day.

Shepherd I

See how Orpheus delights in the shade of those beeches, as Phoebus casts fiery rays down from the sky.

Shepherd II

On those green banks let us sit and weave our voices with the murmuring stream.

Shepherd I & Shepherd II

In this flowery meadow every woodland god is accustomed to come and rest happily. Here Pan, the god of shepherds, has been heard sorrowfully recalling his unhappy loves. Here the pretty wood-nymphs, decked with flowers, with their ivory hands were seen picking roses.

Chorus of Nymphs & Shepherds

So, Orpheus, use your lyre to exalt these meadows where the scents of Sheba float on the breeze.

Orfeo

Vi ricorda, o bosch’ombrosi, de’ miei lungh’aspri tormenti, quando i sassi ai miei lamenti rispondean fatti pietosi?

Dite allor, non vi sembrai più d’ogni altro sconsolato?

Or fortuna ha stil cangiato et ha volto in festa i guai. Vissi già mesto e dolente, or gioisco, e quegli affanni che sofferti ho per tant’anni fan più caro il ben presente. Sol per te, bella Euridice, benedico il mio tormento; dopo il duol vie più contento, dopo il mal vie più felice.

Act 3 - ‘Possente spirto’

Orfeo - Krystian Adam

Orfeo

Possente spirto e formidabil nume, senza cui far passaggio a l’altra riva alma da corpo sciolta in van presume, non viv’io no, che poi di vita è priva mia cara sposa, il cor non è più meco, e senza cor com’esser può ch’io viva?

A lei volt’ho il cammin per l’aër cieco, a l’inferno non già, ch’ovunque stassi tanta bellezza il paradiso ha seco. Orfeo, son io che d’Euridice i passi seguo per queste tenebrose arene, ove già mai per uom mortal non vassi. O de le luci mie luci serene; s’un vostro sguardo può tornarmi in vita, ahi, chi nega il conforto a le mie pene?

Sol tu, nobile dio, puoi darmi aita, né temer dei che sopra un’aurea cetra sol di corde soavi armo le dita contra cui rigida alma invan s’impetra. Ahi, sventurato amante, sperar dunque non lice ch’odan miei prieghi i cittadin d’Averno?

Onde qual ombra errante d’insepolto cadavero infelice, privo sarò del cielo e de l’inferno?

Così vuol empia sorte

ch’in questi orror di morte da te, cor mio, lontano, chiami tuo nome in vano, e pregando e piangendo io mi consumi?

Rendetemi il mio ben, Tartarei numi.

Orpheus Shady groves, do you remember when the pitying rocks echoed my lamenting? Did I not seem the most unhappy of men? Now fortune has changed my woes to joy. I lived a life of sorrow and grief now my years of sorrow make today all the more joyful I bless my torment. Only for you, Eurydice, do I bless my former torments; my happiness is all the greater, after my sorrow.

Orpheus

Powerful spirit and awe-inspiring divinity, without you, no soul, released from its body can hope to reach the other side.

I have no life since my beloved wife is dead; no heart beats within me, and without a heart how can I be alive?

For her I have taken the path through darkness; not to Hell, for wherever her beauty lies Paradise appears there with her.

I am Orpheus, who follows Eurydice's steps across these dark shores where no mortal has ever walked O, clear light of my eyes, if one glance from you can return me to life who will deny me consolation for my sorrow?

Noble god, you alone can help me; have no fear, for I am armed only with a golden lyre against whose sweet strings, hearts of flint are powerless.

Unhappy lover, may I not hope that the people of the Underworld may hear my prayers?

Like the wandering shade of an unburied corpse shall I be deprived of both Heaven and Hell?

Is it fate's decree that in this hideous place of death I should call your name in vain, my love, and be consumed in tears and entreaties?

Give me back my love, gods of Tartarus.

A Chorus of Nymphs © C Fischli

il ritorno d’ulisse in patria

Act 1, Sc. 11-13 ‘Come, oh come mal si salva’

Ulisse - Furio Zanasi

Eumete - Francisco Fernandez Rueda

Iro - Robert Burt

Eumete

Oh come mal si salva un regio ammanto da sventure, e da mali!

Meglio scettri regali che dardi de' pastor imperla il pianto. Seta vestono ed ori i travagli maggiori. È vita più sicura della ricca et illustre la povera ed oscura. Colli, campagne e boschi, se stato uman felicità contiene, in voi s'annida il sospirato bene.

Erbosi prati, in voi nasce il fior del diletto, frutto di libertade in voi si coglie, son delizie dell'uom le vostre foglie.

Iro Pastor d'armenti può prati e boschi lodar, avvezzo nelle mandre a conversar. Quest'erbe che tu nomini sono cibo di bestie, e non degli uomini. Colà tra regi io sto, tu fra gli armenti qui.

Tu godi e tu conversi tutto il dì amicizie selvatiche, io mangio i tuoi compagni e le tue pratiche.

Eumete

Iro, gran mangiatore, Iro, divoratore, Iro, loquace!

Mia pace non perturbar.

Corri, corri a mangiar, corri, corri a crepar!

Eumete

Ulisse generoso!

Fu nobile intrapresa lo spopolar, l'incenerir cittadi; ma forse il ciel irato nella caduta del troiano regno

Eumete

How little protection a royal cloak provides from misfortune! Tears are more likely to moisten royal sceptres than shepherd's crooks. Man's greatest troubles are often cloaked in silk and gold. A poor man's life is more secure than a rich man's. Hills and woods!

If there is happiness in human life, its blessings reside in you. The flower of pleasure grows in grassy meadows. The fruits of liberty are gathered there; your leaves are mankind’s delights.

Irus

A shepherd accustomed to talking to his flock may praise the meadows and woods.

The grass you speak of is the food of beasts and not of humans.

I live there among kings, you live here among flocks. Your friendships are formed in the wild; I eat your companions and friends!

Eumete

Greedy Irus, gobbling Irus blabbering Irus, don't disturb my peace. Off you go and eat, Off you go, and eat yourself to death!

Eumete

Generous Ulysses, how nobly you reduced cities to ashes. But perhaps angry heaven wished to sacrifice your life

volle la vita tua per vittima al suo sdegno.

Ulisse

Se del nomato Ulisse tu vegga in questo giorno desiato il ritorno, accogli questo vecchio povero ch'ha perduto ogni mortal aiuto nella cadente età, nell'aspra sorte; gli sia la tua pietà scorta alla morte.

Eumete

Ospite mio sarai, cortese albergo avrai. Sono i mendici favoriti del ciel, di Giove amici.

Ulisse

Ulisse, Ulisse, è vivo!

La patria lo vedrà, Penelope l’avrà: ché il fato non fu mai d’affetto privo; maturano il destin le sue dimore, credilo a me, Pastore.

Eumete

Come lieto t'accoglio mendica deità. Il mio lungo cordoglio da te vinto cadrà. Seguimi amico pur; riposo avrai sicur.

in the fall of the Trojan kingdom.

Ulysses

If today you see the return of the Ulysses you name, welcome this poor old man who has lost all support at the end of his life. Be his merciful guide on the way to death.

Eumete

You will be my guest and be sheltered with kindness. Beggars are favoured by heaven, befriended by Jove.

Ulysses

Ulysses is alive! He will be seen in his home, restored to Penelope. Fate was never unfeeling; destiny changes, believe me, shepherd.

Eumete

I am happy to welcome you, mendicant god. My long grief will be swept away by you. Follow me, my friend; you will rest in safety.

Act 2, Sc. 5 ‘All’ allegrezze’

(including excerpt of Tirsi e Clori from 7th Book of Madrigals)

Pisandro - Rory McCleery

Anfinomo - Gareth Treseder

Antinoo - Alex Ashworth

Antinoo, Anfinomo & Pisandro

All’allegrezze dunque, al ballo, al canto. Rallegriam la Regina.

Lieto cor ad amar tosto s’inchina.

Coro

Balliamo, che l’onde il vento che spira le move s’aggira, le spinge e confonde, si come lor fiede se movon il piede; e ballan le Linfe quai garrule Ninfe. Balliam che i vezzosi bei fior rugiadosi, se l’aura li scuote con urti e con ruote, fan vaga sembianza anch’essi di danza. Balliamo e giriamo, corriamo e saltiamo, qual cosa più degna il ballo n’insegna!

Act

3, Sc. 9-10 ‘Ogni vostra ragion’

Penelope - Marianna Pizzolato

Telemaco - Krystian Adam

Ulisse - Furio Zanasi

Eumete - Francisco Fernandez Rueda

Ericlea - Francesca Biliotti

Penelope

Ogni vostra ragion sen porta il vento. Non ponno i nostri sogni consolar le vigilie dell'anima smarrita.

Le favole fan riso e non dan vita.

Telemaco

Troppo incredula!

Eumete

Incredula troppo!

Telemaco

Troppo ostinato!

Antinous, Amphinomus & Peisander

Let us be merry, dance and sing. Let us cheer the queen. A happy heart will soon be inclined to love.

Chorus

Let us dance, as the wind that blows moves the waves pushing and pulling them as if they were moving their feet; and the streams dance like chattering nymphs. Let us dance, as the fair flowers seem to dance, as the breeze blows them making it seem as if they too were dancing. Let us dance and turn run and leap since dancing teaches us what is most worthy!

Penelope

All your reasoning is carried off by the wind. Our dreams cannot comfort a bewildered heart. Tales cause laughter, not life.

Telemaco Too doubting!

Eumete Too doubting!

Telemaco Too obstinate!

L’incoronazione di Poppea curtain call at Felsenreitschule, Salzburg, 2017

‘The unmissable event of this Monteverdi year' The Times

Eumete

Ostinata troppo!

Telemaco

È più che vero.

Eumete Di vero è più che 'l vecchio arciero Ulisse fu.

Telemaco Eccolo che sen viene e la sua forma tiene.

Eumete Ulisse, egli è!

Telemaco Eccolo affè.

Ulisse

O delle mie fatiche meta dolce e soave, porto caro, amoroso, dove corro al riposo

Penelope

Fermati cavaliere, incantatore o mago! Di tue finte sembianze io non m'appago.

Ulisse

Così del tuo consorte, così dunque t'appressi ai lungamente sospirati amplessi?

Penelope Consorte io sono, ma del perduto Ulisse. né incantesimi o magie perturberan la fé, le voglie mie.

Ulisse

In onor de tuoi rai l'eternità sprezzai, volontario cangiando e stato e sorte. Per serbarmi fedel son giunto a morte.

Penelope

Quel valor che ti rese ad Ulisse simile care mi fa le stragi degli amanti malvagi.

Eumete Too obstinate!

Telemaco It is the truth.

Eumete

It is the truth that the aged archer was Ulysses.

Telemaco Here he is, in his true likeness

Eumete He is Ulysses!

Telemaco Here he comes.

Ulysses Sweet goal of my wanderings, loving haven of rest, where I hasten

Penelope Stop, sorcerer or magician! I do not trust your false appearance.

Ulysses Is this, therefore, how you approach your husband's long desired embrace?

Penelope My husband is the lost Ulysses. Neither spells nor magic can shake my desires.

Ulysses In honour of your beauty I scorned immortality, changing both my estate and my destiny. To remain faithful I have faced death.

Penelope

That valour which makes you similar to Ulysses made me grateful for the slaughter of the wicked suitors.

Questo di tua bugia il dolce frutto sia.

Ulisse

Quell'Ulisse son io delle ceneri avanzo, residuo delle morti, degli adulteri e ladri fiero castigator e non seguace.

Penelope

Non sei tu 'l primo ingegno che con nome mentito tentasse di trovar comando o regno.

Ericlea

Or di parlar è tempo. È questo Ulisse, casta e gran donna; io lo conobbi allora che nudo al bagno venne, ove scopersi del feroce cinghiale l'onorato segnale.

Penelope

Creder ciò ch'è desio m'insegna amore; serbar costante il sen comanda onore. Dubbio pensier, che fai?

La fe’ negata ai prieghi del buon custode Eumete, di Telemaco il figlio, alla vecchia nutrice anco si nieghi, che il mio pudico letto sol d'Ulisse è ricetto.

Ulisse

Del tuo casto pensiero io so 'l costume. So che 'l letto pudico, che tranne Ulisse solo altro non vide, ogni notte da te s'adorna e copre con un serico drappo, di tua mano contesto, in cui si vede col virginal suo coro, Diana effiggiata. M'accompagnò mai sempre memoria così grata.

Penelope

Or sì ti riconosco, or sì ti credo, antico possessore del combattuto core. Onestà mi perdoni!

Dono tutto ad amor le sue ragioni.

This shall be the sweet fruit of your lie.

Ulysses

I am that Ulysses, who survived death and destruction, he who punishes, not befriends adulterous thieves.

Penelope

You are not the first impostor to try to gain my kingdom with a false name.

Ericlea

Now is the time for me to speak out This is indeed Ulysses, chaste and great lady; I recognised him when he came naked to bathe and I saw the honourable scar caused by a wild boar.

Penelope

Love asks me to believe what I desire; honour bids my heart remain firm. My doubting thoughts, what are you doing? I refuse the entreaties of the good shepherd Eumaeus, of Telemachus, my son, and of my nurse. Only Ulysses may come to my chaste bed.

Ulysses

I know your chaste thoughts. I know your unsullied bed, that none but Ulysses has seen. Every night it is covered and adorned by a silken blanket, woven by your hand, on which is pictured Diana and her virgins. The memory of it was always with me.

Penelope

Yes, now I recognise you, the old owner of my beleaguered heart. Forgive my directness! Love was the reason for it all.

Ulisse

Sciogli la lingua, deh, sciogli per allegrezza i nodi!

Un sospir, un ‘ohimè’ la voce snodi.

Penelope Illustratevi o cieli, rinfioratevi o prati, aure gioite! Gli augelletti cantando, i rivi mormorando or si rallegrino, quell'herbe verdeggianti, quell'onde sussurranti or si consolino, già ché sorta è felice dal cenere troian la mia fenice.

Ulisse Sospirato mio sole!

Penelope Rinnovata mia luce!

Ulisse Porto quieto e riposo.

Penelope, Ulisse Bramato sì, ma caro.

Penelope Per te gli andati affanni a benedir imparo.

l’incoronazione di poppea

Act 1, Sc. 1-2 ‘Ahi, perfida Poppea’

Ottone - Carlo Vistoli

Soldato I - Furio Zanasi

Soldato II - Robert Burt

Ottone

Ah, ah, perfida Poppea, son queste le promesse e i giuramenti, ch'accesero il cor mio?

Questa è la fede, o dio, dio, dio!

Io son quell' Ottone, che ti seguì, che ti bramò, che ti servì, quell' Otton che t'adorò, che per piegarti e intenerirti il core di lagrime imperlò preghi devoti, gli spirti a te sacrificando in voti.

Ulysses

Loosen your tongue, ah, loosen your knots for happiness! Let loose a sigh.

Penelope Shine, o heavens, blossom again, o fields; breezes, rejoice! Let the singing birds and murmuring streams be cheerful once more, let the green meadows and whispering waves now take comfort. For my phoenix has arisen from the ashes of Troy.

Ulysses My love, for whom I sighed!

Penelope My love, restored to me!

Ulysses Haven of peace and rest.

Penelope, Ulysses Desired and precious.

Penelope For you I shall come to bless my past anguish.

M'assicurasti al fine ch'abbracciate avrei nel tuo bel seno le mie beatitudini amorose; Io di credula speme il seme sparsi. Ma l'aria e'l cielo a' danni miei rivolto

Soldato I Chi parla?

Ottone Tempestò di ruine

Soldato I Chi parla? Ottone il mio raccolto.

Soldato I Chi va lì?

Soldato II Camerata?

Soldato I Ohimè, ancor non è di!

Soldato II Camerata, che fai? Par che parli sognando.

Soldato I

Sorgono pur dell'alba primi rai.

Soldato II

Sù, risvegliati tosto,

Soldato I

Non ho dormito in tutta notte mai.

finally, you promised me close embraces and blissful love

I sowed the seeds of trust and hope. But Heaven has turned against me…

First Soldier Who speaks?

Otho Bringing ruin

First Soldier Who goes there? Otho to my efforts.

First Soldier Who goes there?

Second Soldier My friend?

First Soldier It’s not yet dawn!

Second Soldier What are you doing? are you talking in your sleep?

First Soldier The sun’s coming up

Second Soldier Come on, wake up...

First Soldier I haven’t slept all night.

Otho

Ah, faithless Poppea, are these the promises that stirred my heart?

Is this fidelity, oh god, god, god!

I am the same Otho who pursued you, desired you, and served you; who adores you and implored you in tears to soften your heart; I sacrificed my reason to you,

Soldato II

Sù, risvegliati tosto, guardiamo il nostro posto.

Soldato I

Sia maledetto Amor, Poppea, Nerone, e Roma, e la milizia, soddisfar io no posso alla pigrizia un'ora, un giorno solo.

Soldato II

La nostra imperatrice stilla se stessa in pianti,

Second Soldier Come on, wake up, let’s guard our post.

First Soldier

A curse on love, Poppea, Nerone, and Rome and the army, I can’t be idle for a single day or a single hour.

Second Soldier Our Empress is in tears while Nerone

e Neron per Poppea la vilipende; L'Armenia si ribella, ed egli non ci pensa.

La Pannonia da all'armi, ed ei se ne ride, così, per quant'io veggio, l'impero se ne va di male in peggio.

Soldato I

Dì pur che il prence nostro ruba a tutti per donar ad alcuni; l'innocenza va afflitta e i scellerati stan sempre a mandritta.

Soldato II

Sol del pedante Seneca si fida.

Soldato I

Di quel vecchio rapace?

Soldato II

Di quel volpon sagace!

Soldato I

Di quel reo cortigiano che fonda il suo guadagno sul tradire il compagno!

Soldato II

Di quell' empio architetto che si fa casa sul sepolcro altrui!

Soldato I

Non ridir ad alcun quel che diciamo. Nel fidarti va scaltro; Se gl'occhi non si fidan l'un dell'altro E però nel guardar van sempre insieme.

Soldato I & Soldato II

Impariamo dagl'occhi, A non trattar da sciocchi.

Soldato I

Ma, gia s'imbianca l'alba, e vien’ il dI;

Soldato I & Soldato II

Taciam, Neron' è qui.

scorns her for Poppea; Armenia is rebelling, but he barely notices.

Pannonia is up in arms and he laughs about it. So, as I see it, the Empire is going extremely badly.

First Soldier

And then our Prince robs the many to give to the few; innocence is wounded and the wicked benefit.

Second Soldier

He only trusts Seneca

First Soldier That grasping old man?

Second Soldier That wily old fox.

First Soldier An old courtier who earns his keep by betraying his friends!

Second Soldier He builds his house on others’ graves!

First Soldier Don’t repeat any of this. Be careful whom you trust; our eyes don’t trust each other but they join together to look.

First & Second Soldier

Our eyes should teach us not to behave like fools.

First Soldier The day is dawning now.

First & Second Soldier

Keep quiet, Nerone is coming.

Robert Burt and Furio Zanasi as Soldati © Michele Crosera

Act 2, Sc. 12-15 ‘Adagiati Poppea’

Arnalta - Reginald Mobley

Poppea - Francesca Boncompagni

Amore - Silvia Frigato

Ottone - Carlo Vistoli

Arnalta

Adagiati, Poppea, acquietati, anima mia: sarai ben custodita. Oblivion soave

I dolci sentimenti in te, figlia, addormenti. Posatevi occhi ladri; Aperti, deh, che fate, se chiusi ancor rubate?

Poppea, rimanti in pace; luci care e gradite, dormite omai, dormite.

Amore

Dorme, l'incauta dorme, ella non sa, ch'or or verra

Il punto micidiale;

così l'umanita vive all'oscuro e quando ha chiusi gl'occhi crede essersi dal mal posta in sicuro. O sciocchi, o frali sensi mortali:

mentre cadete in sonnacchioso oblio sul vostro sonno è vigilante dio. Dormi, o Poppea, terrena dea;

ti salverà dall'armi altrui rubelle, amor che move il sol e l'altre stelle.

Gia s'avvicina

la tua ruina;

ma non ti nuocerà strano accidente, ch'Amor picciolo è sì, ma onnipotente.

Ottone

Eccomi trasformato, d’Otton in Drusilla.

Non di Otton in Drusilla, ma d'uom in serpe, al cui veleno, e rabbia non vide il mondo, e non vedrà simile. Ma che veggio infelice?

Tu dormi, anima mia? Chiudesti gl'occhi per non aprirli più?

Care pupille, Il sonno vi serrò

Arnalta

Lie down, Poppea; rest, my dear soul: you will be well guarded. Let sweet oblivion calm all your senses in sleep, my child. Rest your thieving eyes; Why keep them open if they still bewitch when closed?

Poppea, rest peacefully; Lovely, dear eyes, sleep now, sleep.

Cupid

The unwary girl is asleep; she doesn’t know that the murderous blade is coming.

Thus humanity lives in darkness and, with its eyes closed, thinks it is safe from danger.

O foolish and frail mortal senses: while you fall in sleepy oblivion, a god watches over your slumber. Sleep, Poppea, earthly goddess; the love that moves the sun and stars will save you from a traitor’s weapon. Your ruin is at hand but nothing will harm you; Love may be small but is all-powerful.

Otho

Here I am, transformed from Otho into Drusilla

No, not Otho as Drusilla But a man become a serpent with the deadliest venom ever known.

What do I see, wretched me?

Are you asleep, my beloved? Have you closed your eyes, never to open them again? Sleep has bound your eyes

Reginald Mobley as Arnalta © Harris Theater

alfin ché non vediate questi prodigi strani: la vostra morte uscir dalle mie mani. Ma che tardo? Che bado?

Costei m'aborre, e sprezza, e ancor io l'amo? Ho promesso ad Ottavia: se mi pento accelero a miei dì funesto il fine.

Esca di corte chi vuol esser pio. Colui ch'ad altro guarda, ch'all'interesse suo, merta esser cieco. Il fatto resta occulto, la macchiata coscienza si lava finalmente con l'oblio. Poppea, t'uccido; Amor, rispetti: addio.

Amore

Forsennato, scellerato, Inimico del mio nume, Tanto adunque si presume?

Fulminarti io dovrei, Ma non merti di morire Per la mano degli dei. Illeso va’ da questi strali acuti, Non tolgo al manigoldo i suoi tributi.

Poppea

Drusilla, in questo modo? Con l'armi ignude in mano, Mentre nel mio giardin dormo soletta?

Arnalta

Accorrete, accorrete, O servi, o damigelle, In seguir Drusilla, dalli, dalli, Tanto mostro a ferir non sia chi falli, dalli, dalli, dalli, dalli.

Amore Ho difesa Poppea, Vuo' farla imperatrice, Ho difesa Poppea.

so you will not witness this awesome sight: your death at my hands.

But why am I delaying?

This woman despises me, and I still love her?

If I go back on my promise to Ottavia, my death will surely come soon. The court is not a place for the pious Those who do not follow their own interest deserve to be blind.

The deed will not be discovered;

Tainted conscience will soon be forgotten.

Poppea, I shall kill you Farewell to love and honour.

Cupid Madman, wretch, enemy of Love, how can you defy me?

I should strike you down with lightning. But you don’t deserve to die by the hand of gods. You will escape these bolts; I shall not rob the hangman.

Poppea

Drusilla, like this? With a naked weapon in hand, while I sleep alone in my garden?

Arnalta Hurry, hurry! Servants, maids! Go after Drusilla, don’t fail to strike the monster down Cupid

I have protected Poppea, I shall make her empress, I have protected Poppea!

Act 3, Sc 8 ‘Pur ti miro’

Nerone - Reginald Mobley

Poppea - Francesca Boncompagni

Nerone & Poppea

Pur ti miro, pur ti godo, pur ti stringo, pur t’annodo, più non peno, più non moro, o mia vita, o mi tesoro. Io son tua, tuo son io, speme mia, dillo, dì, tu sei pur, speme mia, l’idol mio, dillo, dì, tu sei pur, sì, mio ben, sì, mio cor, mia vita, sì.

Nero & Poppea

I look at you, I find bliss in you, I wrap my arms around you, I hold you close. There is no more pain, there is no more death, oh my life, my beloved. I am yours, you are mine, my hope, say it, my hope, the one I adore, say it, you are, yes, my love, yes, my heart, my life.

monteverdi 450 auction

Own a piece of Monteverdi 450 history!

All the performance images displayed in this programme were taken during this year’s Trilogy tour. The stylish costumes featured, were specially commissioned to help us bring Monteverdi’s unforgettable stories alive visually for our audiences.

These unique, one-off items, which were worn by the world-class cast of international soloists and Monteverdi Choir, will now be sold to help us raise money for future projects. Therefore, from 12-17 December we will be running an online auction on ebay, selling the costumes and other treasured memorabilia from the tour.

A catalogue of the items up for sale along with details of how to bid and get involved can be found on our website www.monteverdi.org.uk

Soprano

Rebecca Hardwick

Eleanor Meynell

Chloe Morgan

Angharad Rowlands

Countertenor

Rory McCleery

Tim Morgan

Simon Ponsford

tenor

Peter Davoren

Bass

Alexander Ashworth

Daniel D’Souza

Samuel Evans

Lawrence Wallington

ENglIsh baROquE sOlOIsTs

violins

Kati Debretzeni (Leader)

Iona Davies

Henry Tong

Henrietta Wayne

violas

Fanny Paccoud

Lisa Cochrane

Małgorzata Ziemkiewicz

Aliye Cornish

Recorders

Rachel Beckett

Catherine Latham

dulcian

Györgyi Farkas

Cornetti

Jamie Savan

Frithjof Smith

Darren Moore

Sackbuts

Miguel Tantos Sevillano

Stephanie Dyer

Martyn Sanderson

Abigail Newman

Stephen Saunders

Chitarroni/Baroque Guitars

David Miller

Josías Rodríguez Gándara

Elizabeth Kenny

Cello

Marco Frezzato

viola da gamba/Lirone

Kinga Gáborjáni

double Bass

Valerie Botwright

harpsichords/Organ

Oliver John Ruthven

Howard Moody

harp

Gwyneth Wentink

Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Sir John Eliot Gardiner is revered as one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic musicians, constantly in the vanguard of enlightened interpretation and standing as a leader in contemporary musical life. His work, as founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir (MC), English Baroque Soloists (EBS) and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR), has marked him out as a key figure both in the early music revival and as a pioneer of historically informed performances.

As a regular guest of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Gardiner conducts repertoire from the 17th to the 20th century. He was awarded the Concertgebouw Prize in January 2016.

The extent of Gardiner’s repertoire is illustrated in the extensive catalogue of award-winning recordings with his own ensembles and leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic on major labels (including Decca, Philips, Erato and 30 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon), as wide-ranging as Mozart, Schumann, Berlioz, Elgar and Kurt Weill, in addition to works by Renaissance and Baroque composers. Since 2005 the Monteverdi ensembles have recorded on their independent label, Soli Deo Gloria, established to release the live recordings madeduring Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, for which he received Gramophone’s 2011 Special Achievement Award and a Diapason d’or de l’année 2012. His many recording accolades include two GRAMMY awards and he has received more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist.

Gardiner has also conducted opera productions; at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, at the Vienna State Opera and at Teatro alla Scala, Milan. From 1983 to 1988 he was artistic director of Opéra de Lyon, where he founded its new orchestra.

Following the success in 2008 of Verdi Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House, Gardiner returned there in 2012 to conduct Verdi Rigoletto, and in 2013 Mozart Le nozze di Figaro, to coincide with the 40th anniversary since his ROH debut. In autumn 2015, he returned again to ROH to conduct Gluck Orphée et Eurydice, with the MC and EBS, co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and John Fulljames.

An authority on the music of J S Bach, Gardiner’s book, Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, was published in October 2013 by Allen Lane, leading to the Prix des Muses award (Singer-Polignac). Among numerous awards in recognition of his work, Sir John Eliot Gardiner holds several honorary doctorates. He was awarded a knighthood for his services to music in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

John Eliot Gardiner in the late 1960s

lighting designer

Rick Fisher

Born in Philadelphia, Rick is winner of two Olivier Awards for Best Lighting Design and two Tony Awards for An Inspector Calls and Billy Elliot (Broadway). He has previously worked with John Eliot Gardiner on productions of Leonora, The Magic Flute and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His theatre credits include: Consent (National Theatre, London), Rent (UK tour), What’s in a Name, An Inspector Calls, Sunny Afternoon, Judas Kiss (New York, Toronto, London); The Audience (West End, Broadway), Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and Billy Elliot

cast

Krystian Adam tenor

Krystian regularly works with eminent conductors, including John Eliot Gardiner, Giovanni Antonini, Teodor Currentzis, Stefano Montanari, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Andreas Spering, Werner Ehrhardt, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Václav Luks, Fabio Biondi and Fabio Bonizzoni. Among his recent engagements: Mozart Great Mass in C Minor, Le nozze di Figaro and Adriana Lecouvreur (ROH); Idomeneo (La Fenice); Bach Magnificat (Berlin) and La Fanciulla del West (La Scala, Milan).

Francesca Biliotti contralto

A graduate from Conservatorio Cantelli in Novara, Francesca is the winner of several singing competitions. Previous operatic performances include Rossini L’Italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola and Gluck Orfeo. In concert she has performed Vivaldi Dixit Dominus at Yaroslavl Festival with the Soloists of Moscow, Bach St Matthew Passion, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Salve Regina, Vivaldi Stabat Mater, Mozart Requiem, and Handel Messiah. In 2016 she recorded Lotti Se con stille frequenti with Sara Mingardo (Arcana Records).

Francesca Boncompagni soprano

Franceca has worked with top early music ensembles across Europe including Collegium Vocale Gent, Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Accademia Bizantina, Cappella Mediterranea and Cappella Neapolitana and with leading conductors Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie and Paul Agnew. She has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Philharmonie, Salle Pleyel and Théatre des Champs-Elysées (Paris), Berlin Philharmonie, Alte Oper (Frankfurt), and also at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Robert Burt tenor

Robert studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is most associated with the role of Iro in Monteverdi Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Chicago‚ New York, Opera North‚ Deutsche Oper am Rhein‚ Geneva‚ Madrid, Aix-en-Provence and on DVD). Other credits include Dancing Master Manon Lescaut (ROH), Sweeney Todd (Adelphi Theatre)‚ The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Montpellier), St John Passion and Sweeney Todd (Nederlandse Reisopera)‚ Die Fledermaus‚ Alice in Wonderland‚ Adriana

Francisco Fernández-Rueda tenor

Francisco studied at Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya and is an alumnus of Le Jardin des Voix. He regularly works with ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Concerto Köln and La Capella Reial de Catalunya. He has performed in major festivals such as Händel-Festspiele, SWR Schwetzinger Festspiele, Festival International d'Opéra Baroque de Beaune. He has worked with conductors including Jordi Savall, William Christie, Fabio Biondi and Paul Agnew. Operatic performances include Don Giovanni, Anna Bolena, Acis & Galatea, Hippolyte et Aricie, Tamerlano. He has recorded for Accent, Naxos and Fra Musica.

Silvia Frigato soprano

Silvia was winner of the Francesco Provenzale International Baroque singing competition in Naples (2007). Recent engagements include: Monteverdi L’incoronazione di Poppea (La Scala, Milan), Jommelli’s L’Isola Disabitata (Naples), Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice, Debussy Pélleas et Mélisande (Florence), Monteverdi Vespers (Prague, Dresden), Pergolesi Stabat Mater (Venice, Milan), Juditha Triumphans (Ferrara), Monteverdi 2.0 (France), Martinu’s Mirandolina (Venice), Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis (Salzburg), La Serva Padrona (Lugo).

Reginald Mobley countertenor

Reginald Mobley’s most notable highlights include a reconstruction of Bach St. Mark Passion (Oregon Bach Festival), performance and recording of Lotti Gloria in C (Piedmont Baroque Consortium) and touring Bach St. Matthew Passion with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Other recent engagements include a tour and recording of Bach Magnificat with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Handel Messiah with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, performances with the Seattle Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras as well as Bach Reconstructed with the Academy of Ancient Music.

Marianna Pizzolato mezzo-soprano

Marianna regularly sings in the most prestigious venues and festivals in the world, including: ROH, Opéra National de Paris and Nikikai Opera Theatre,Tokyo and has worked with conductors such as: Bruno Campanella, Daniele Gatti, James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Alberto Zedda. Recent engagements: Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri (The Met), Rossini Stabat Mater (Edinburgh, Tanglewood Festival) and Il viaggio a Reims (Bolshoi Theatre). Her future projects include Rossini Stabat Mater and La Donna del Lago (Liège), Handel Radamisto (Athens), Verdi Falstaff (Madrid).

Gareth Treseder tenor

Gareth studied at the University of Bristol and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and was an apprentice with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir. Solo engagements include Bach Cantata 61 and Cantata 70 (Cité de la Musique, Berlin Philharmonic and Cadogan Hall), The Shepherd in Stravinsky Oedipus Rex with the LSO (Barbican) and with the Berlin Philharmonie, Handel Dixit Dominus (Buckingham Palace), Monteverdi Vespers (Carnegie Hall, King’s College Cambridge, and Château de Versailles), Mozart Requiem (Royal Albert Hall) and Handel Messiah (Colston Hall).

Carlo Vistoli countertenor

Carlo graduated from Ferrara Conservatorio and Bologna University. His previous operatic roles include: Tamerlano in Handel Tamerlano (Warsaw), Purcell King Arthur (Rome and Bologna), Piritoo in Cavalli Elena (Rennes/Nantes), Tolomeo in Handel Giulio Cesare (China), Febo in Caldara Dafne with Teatro La Fenice Orchestra and Giovanni Montanari (Venice), Spirit in Purcell Dido and Aeneas (Turin) and Ottone in Handel Agrippina (Brisbane). Other engagements include: Handel Dixit Dominus (Rome), Handel Messiah and L’Orfeo with Les Arts Florissants.

Furio Zanasi baritone

Furio has appeared in the main opera houses and most prestigious festivals in Europe, US and Japan, singing under many of the world’s famous conductors. He has sung Orfeo in Monteverdi L’Orfeo on tour and in a new production at Den Norske Opera, Oslo recorded by Naïve. He was Ulisse in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at La Scala, Milan where he took part in the Monteverdi Trilogy with Rinaldo Alessandrini, directed by Robert Wilson. He has recorded more than 60 CDs for a variety of labels including Harmonia Mundi, Accord, Naxos and Chandos.

Monteverdi Choir rehearsing Handel at Christchurch, Spitalfields in the early 1970’s

‘The Monteverdi Choir has dominated the choral scene worldwide for more than 50 years now, and their singing remains wonderfully committed and scrupulously focused’

The

Guardian

MONTEVERDI chOIR

Founded by Sir John Eliot Gardiner as part of the breakaway period-instrument movement of the 1960s, the Monteverdi Choir has always focused on bringing a new perspective to its repertoire. With a combination of consummate choral technique and historically-informed performance practice, its real difference as an ensemble lies in its ability to communicate music to their audiences worldwide. The Choir goes beyond the music, seeking to make the visual impact of its performance enhance the experience, even exploiting the venues themselves in the search for immediacy and drama. This approach has led the Monteverdi Choir to be consistently acclaimed over the past 50 years as one of the best choirs in the world.

Amongst a number of trailblazing tours was the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, during which the Choir performed all 198 of J S Bach’s sacred cantatas in more than 60 churches throughout Europe and America. The entire project, recorded by the company’s record label Soli Deo Gloria was hailed as ‘one of the most ambitious musical projects of all time’ by Gramophone magazine. The Monteverdi Choir has over 150 recordings to its name and has won numerous prizes.

The Choir is also committed to training future generations of singers through the Monteverdi Apprentices Programme. Many Apprentices go on to become full members of the Choir, and former Choir members have also gone on to enjoy successful solo careers.

The Choir has also participated in several staged opera productions, including Der Freischütz (2010), Carmen (2009) at the Opéra Comique in Paris, and Les Troyens at the Théâtre du Châtelet. In 2015, the Choir performed Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, working in collaboration with the Hofesh Shechter dance company.

In addition, the Choir has taken part in a variety of projects across different repertoires – from an extensive tour of Bach St Matthew Passion (performed from memory) with the English Baroque Soloists to Berlioz Roméo et Juliette at the BBC Proms and Festival Berlioz with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner they have also collaborated with both the London Symphony Orchestra on Mendelssohn’s Ein Sommernachtsraum and the Tonhalle Orchestra on Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass

Most recent achievements include the acclaimed Monteverdi 450 trilogy tour which saw them perform all three of Monteverdi’s surviving operas across Europe and in the US. Along with recordings of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 2 (Lobgesang) with LSO and Bach Magnificat in E Flat alongside the English Baroque Soloists.

‘The intimacy of the English Baroque Soloists’ accompaniment judged to perfection.’

The Guardian L’incoronazione di Poppea at Colston Hall, 2017

ENglIsh baROquE sOlOIsTs

The English Baroque Soloists have long been established as one of the world’s leading period instrument orchestras. Throughout their repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart and Haydn, they are equally at home in chamber, symphonic and operatic performances and the distinctive sound of their warm and incisive playing is instantly recognisable.

The ensemble has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Sydney Opera House. During the course of the 1990s they performed Mozart’s seven mature operas and recorded all of his piano concertos and mature symphonies.

The English Baroque Soloists are regularly involved in joint projects with the Monteverdi Choir, with whom they famously took part in the iconic Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, performing all of Bach’s sacred cantatas throughout Europe. They also toured Gluck Orphée et Eurydice to Hamburg and Versailles, following a staged production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in collaboration with the Hofesh Shechter dance company.

Last year they were involved in several tours, including performances of Bach Magnificat in E flat, Lutheran Mass in F major, and Cantata ‘Süßer Trost’ with the Monteverdi Choir in venues around Europe, and Bach St Matthew Passion as well as a mixed programme of Mozart Symphonies 39-41, Requiem and Great Mass in C Minor.

Most recently they have taken part in the celebrated Monteverdi 450 trilogy tour which saw them perform all three of Monteverdi’s surviving operas across Europe and in the US. Along with the release of two Bach recordings on the SDG label, St Matthew Passion and Magnificat in E flat.

our work

Alongside our performance and project work, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras (MCO) is committed to providing opportunities for professional development and education.

We believe passionately in nurturing future generations of players and singers and developing emerging talent. Our Monteverdi Apprentices Programme enables outstanding young musicians to spend an entire year training and performing with our three world-class ensembles, under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

In addition, we run an Arts Management Training Programme to support those wishing to pursue a career in arts administration. Previous trainees have gone on to secure positions with major arts organisations including the Royal Opera House, Sage Gateshead and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

membership & support

Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras is committed to producing work of the highest calibre and to sharing our distinctive performance practice with audiences around the world. Our supporters are a group of dedicated and discerning music lovers who take pride in the knowledge that their donations help us to achieve our artistic vision.

As a registered charity without public subsidy, our benefactors are crucial to our work, helping us to produce topquality performances, remunerate artists accordingly, nurture young talent, and consolidate the company’s ongoing sustainability.

We value and welcome your support. By joining us you can help us achieve our ambitions.You can get involved in the following ways:

JOIN THE MONTEVERDI MEMBERSHIP SCHEME

You’ll have the opportunity to meet our musicians at open rehearsals, attend our special events and meet other distinguished supporters.

MAKE A DONATION

Every donation makes a difference to our organisation.

CORPORATE SUPPORT

‘The generosity of our supporters make it possible for MCO to continue making music and offering a fertile training ground for young musicians in the years to come. Thank you.’

Sir John Eliot Gardiner

For more information, to make a donation, or to request a confidential conversation with our General Director, please contact us on +44 (0)20 7719 0120 or email us at development@monteverdi.org.uk.

As part of our education and outreach work, we are currently working with Bristol Plays Music on a project that ties in with our Monteverdi 450 celebrations, to give local school children and university students an insight of what we do, through vocal workshops, talks with members of our ensembles and attendance at dress rehearsals.

It is our long-term ambition to continue education projects of this nature as we seek to inspire future generations of music-makers by sharing our knowledge and expertise.

We welcome corporate support, and will tailor partnership packages to meet your business needs, including entertainment opportunities at performances in the UK and around the world.

LEGACY GIVING

By choosing to leave a legacy gift to Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras you’ll be playing a crucial role in securing the future of our three ensembles.

Additional information can be found on our website www.monteverdi.co.uk.

+44 (0) 20 7719 0120 | info@monteverdi.org.uk www.monteverdi.co.uk

mco supporters

PATR o N

HRH The Prince of Wales

P RES id ENT

Ian Hay Davison CBE

B ENEFACT o R

Sir David Walker

the monteverdi membership scheme

BACH MEMBERS

Michael Beverley, DL

David & Sandra Brierwood

Mrs Julia Chappell

Andrey Kidel

Kevin Lavery

Michael Likierman

William Lock

Margo & Nicholas Snowman

BEETH o VEN MEMBERS

Lord Burns

Sarah & Nick Delfas

Peter & Stephanie Chapman

Victoria & Stephen Swift

BRAHMS MEMBERS

Roger & Rosemary Chadder, Michael

Estorick, Felicity & John John Fairbairn, Mrs Juliet Gibbs, Gordon Gullan, Gracia

Lafuente & Jake Donavan, Mr Duncan

Matthews QC, Lady Nixon, Christian & Mytro Rochat, Antony C Shoults, Christopher Stewart, Victor & Tina

Vadaneaux, Dr David Ritchie, Mrs Elaine

Spence, Mrs Elisabeth Duncan, Mr Roy

Blackwell, Mrs Jennifer Jones, Miss

Stephanie Plackett, Ms Mary Johnson, Mr John Comerford, Dr Lourdes St George, Mr Spencer White, Mr Ken

Dent Mrs Diana Dent, Rev. Richard Fabian, Mr David Stancliffe, Ms Vanessa Hall-Smith

And those who wish to remain anonymous

B ER lioz MEMBERS

Mr A Agterhuis, Brian André & Peter

Folstar, Geoffrey Barnett, Donald D

Campbell, Peter J Chapman, Miss

Vanessa Claypole, Mrs Melanie Edge, Flora

Fraser, Anthony de Grey, Donald J Gorman, Doug & Mary Hawkins, Patrick Heininger, János & Dietlinde Hidasi, Jenny & George

Hill, Richard Jacques, Gareth Keene, J.

Kittmer, Lydia Lau & Family, John Julius & Mollie Norwich, Alessandro Orsaria, Peter

W. Parker, Simon Perry, Mary Pinnell, Nicola

F. E. Ramsden, Dr Paul A Sackin, Steven & Olivia Schaefer, Christopher J H Thornhill, Andrew Tusa, Veronica Uribe & Andres

Ortega, David & Hilmary Quarmby, Andrew Wales, David Ward

And those who wish to remain anonymous

C o RP o RATE PARTNERS

Morgan Stanley

Greensill Capital Limited

Green Network Energy Ltd

Intesa Sanpaolo

TR u STS AN d F ou N d AT io NS

Dunard Fund

The Scheide Fund

S u PP o RTERS o F THE M o NTEVER di APPRENT i CES PR o GRAMME

Mr Roger Chadder

Ian Hay & Morny Davison

Mr & Mrs John Fairbairn

Mrs Helen Skinner

Ernest Cook Trust

The Garrick Charitable Trust

The Trusthouse Charitable Foundation

AMER i CAN FR i EN d S

Jeffrey Calman, John Skinner, Ferne

Mele, Francesca Hayslett, Rodney N.M.

Johnson MBE, Judith McCartin Scheide

monteverdi 450 supporters

The Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras would like to thank the supporters of the Monteverdi 450 project for their kindness and generosity.

Mr & Mrs Baha Bassatne

Michael Beverley

William & Judith Bollinger

Bette Jane Booth

David & Sandra Brierwood

Julia Chappell

Michael L Cioffi, Monteverdi Tuscany, Castiglioncello del Trinoro, Italy

Morny & Ian Hay Davison

Dunard Fund

The Fort Foundation & Edward S Fort OBE

Green Network Energy Ltd

Greensill Capital

Mrs Carol Colburn Grigor & Mr Murray Grigor

Intesa Sanpaolo

Jill Jachera

Patricia Kenneally

Kevin Lavery

William Lock

London Women's Clinic Foundation

Morgan Stanley

One Medical Group

Ivan & Emma Pearce-Molland

Nicola Ramsden

Judith McCartin Scheide

The Scheide Fund

Seneca Partners

Lena Chang Sheeran

John G Turner & Jerry G Fischer

Sir David Walker

Mr Bruno Wang

Philip Wilbraham Winton Group

And those who wish to remain anonymous

iN M EM o R i AM

John Baker, William Barnaby, Lady Foley, Annette Pils, Ruth Zeigler and Sir Ralph

Kohn F.R.S

management team board

Dr Rosa Solinas General Director

Martin Wheeler Finance & Administration Manager

Matthew Broom Artistic Planning Manager

Jonathan Broad Marketing & Communications Manager

Emily Parker Tours & Choir Manager

Tom Hansell

Projects & Partnerships Coordinator

James Halliday Artistic Advisor & Librarian

Grace Ko

Concerts & Projects Administrator

Philip Turbett

Orchestra Manager

Matt Muller Stage Manager

Esther Kippax Office Assistant

Michael Beverley, DL Chair

David Brierwood Deputy Chair

David Best

Mrs Virginia Fraser

Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Joanne Merry

Antony Peattie

Nicola Ramsden

Nicholas Snowman

Prof. John Fletcher Smyth

Monteverdi choir and Orchestras limited

Level 6, 20 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AD

Tel: 020 7719 0120

info@monteverdi.org.uk

www.monteverdi.co.uk

Registered charity 272279

Company registered in England and Wales 1277513

+44 (0) 20 7719 0120 | info@monteverdi.org.uk

www.monteverdi.co.uk

Monteverdi Choir rehearsing at Westminster Cathedral circa1970

monteverdi choir & orchestras - 2018 tour dates

More dates to be annouunced soon

Level 12, 20 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AD

Tel: +44 (0)20 7719 0120 | info@monteverdi.org.uk

www.monteverdi.co.uk

Charity No 272279 | Company No 01277513