Organization

Conductor

Rinaldo Alessandrini

Gran Teatre del Liceu

Monteverdi's Madrigals (III)

Barcelona

Spain

Monteverdi's Madrigals (III): Concert Various

Public

Concert

Approved

Monteverdi's madrigals occupy a key chapter in the history of music for, besides being the highspot of the genre itself, their evolution brought a new genre into existence: opera.

This concert is the latest stage on our fascinating journey through the nine books of madrigals published between 1587 and 1651, an exercise in proto-opera in which the emotions take centre stage.

This season we start with book two: Il secondo libro de madrigali a cinque voci . Published in 1590 when the composer was twenty-two, it reveals his conquest of stylistic purity and visual metaphor, for none of the other books contains such a wealth of images and descriptions of nature (rivers, dawns, breezes, birds, flowers, skies, springs…). Hence the fact that this book, published in the hope of obtaining a contract in Milan, later caught the attention of the court of Mantua and Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga. In it Monteverdi lays down the coordinates of a fascinating equation between sound and vision.

Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor, harpsichordist and a leading authority on Monteverdi, guides us along this lush and fascinating path studded with exquisite miniatures. The words and music, the declamation and stile concitato reveal the first attempts to depict human passions through text and harmony. This is Monteverdi's legacy in condensed form.

English

Monteverdi's Madrigals (III) by Various, From (2022/2022), Conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain

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