Our long-running project concludes with Monteverdiﾕs first and best-known opera, the work that effectively established a brilliant new genre. It tells the familiar Greek myth of Orpheusﾕ descent into Hades in search of Euridice, but the original tragic conclusion is replaced by the appearance of Orpheusﾕ father Apollo, who reunites Orpheus and Euridice. Monteverdiﾕs superb music, expressive and brilliant by turns, made a profound impact at the time, as it has done in modern times.
This will be a memorable occasion, not to be missed. The cast of notable early music singers is accompanied by 22 musicians playing the instruments specified by Monteverdi: natural trumpet, cornetts, sackbuts, dulcian, a violin consort, three theorboes, double harp, two harpsichords, chamber organ and regal.
concert performance
Philippa Hyde soprano
Faye Newton soprano
Charles Daniels tenor
Daniel Auchincloss tenor
Stuart O’Hara bass
Psalmody
The John Jenkins Consort & friends
directed by Peter Holman
