28 Jul 2022
With the release of L’incoronazione di Poppea, the complete trilogy of our landmark 2017 performances of Monteverdi’s operas is now on sale.
Order your copies now via Presto Music:
L’Orfeo
All three pieces were filmed during our award-winning international tour of the Monteverdi Opera Trilogy. Alongside the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner assembled an exemplary cast of world-class singers for concert-stagings of Monteverdi’s revolutionary operas. All three semi-staged productions were part of John Eliot Gardiner’s acclaimed celebration of Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary.
‘This production of the first great opera ever written is otherworldly and unforgettable, letting Monteverdi’s genius shine through’
★★★★★ The Times
L’Orfeo - Opera was in its infancy when Monteverdi wrote L’Orfeo, only six years after the first example of a drama set wholly to music had been performed in Florence. He brought to the work a revolutionary synthesis of text, staging and musical architectural that virtually defined the future of opera.
Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria - Part of a late flowering in Monteverdi’s illustrious career, this opera is considered the most tender and moving of his three surviving operas. It takes its narrative from the second half of Homer’s Odyssey, presenting Ulysses as a flawed hero; a lone wanderer who has to overcome cruel tests, terrible hardships, treachery and deception before he can be reunited with his faithful queen Penelope and recover his kingdom.
L’incoronazione di Poppea - Written at the very end of Monteverdi’s life, this opera marked a decisive move from allegorical and mythic elements towards a historical subject – the love affair between the Roman Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea. His final masterpiece, where the beauty of the arias vanquished the decadence of the storyline, was first performed in the year of his death.
