Monteverdi - L'Orfeo / Bostridge, Ciofi, Coote, Dessay, Gens, Prina, Sampson, Agnew, Bertin, Luperi, Maltman, Regazzo, Le Concert d'Astree, Haim

It seems natural that of all mythological heroes, Orpheus, a singer endowed with matchless musical gifts, should appeal to so many opera composers. L'Orfeo, which premiered at the Court of Mantua in 1607, was Monteverdi's first opera. This fairly new genre sought to combine performing practices of Greek and Roman antiquity with music capable of arousing and expressing emotions through a dramatic text. Alessandro Striggio's libretto gives the story an unusual perspective: it focuses on the power of music, but also on the need for self-discipline. Orpheus, having conquered the forces of death and Hades, is undone by his inability to accept the transience of mortal joy and to control his own impulses. Thus, the opera ends differently from the myth, as well as from the more famous opera by Gluck: Apollo, Orpheus' father, appears and offers him eternal bliss in Heaven. The music is enchantingly beautiful. The vocal lines are cast in the rhetorical "speech-song" used at the time, which carries the dramatic action and expresses the emotions of the characters; however, there is much elaborate coloratura and ornamentation at crucial moments. Instrumental "ritornellos" alternate with the vocal sections in infinitely varied, imaginative combinations, and the wonderfully rich-sounding chorus, impersonating shepherds, friends and furies, adds commentary in chorale-like or contrapuntal settings. The performance is superb. In the prominent part of Orpheus, Ian Bostridge is riveting, changing and coloring his voice to express joy, hope, pleading, passion, anguish, despair; even the intricate coloratura passages add to the emotional impact. Also outstanding are Natalie Dessay, Alice Coote, Mario Luperi and Christopher Maltman. The orchestra is a crucial element, supporting the singers, sometimes with answering and echoing solo lines, setting mood and atmosphere in the instrumental sections; the brass choir passages---solemn, somber, gloriously triumphant---are especially striking. Interestingly, though the strings play without vibrato, the singers mostly use full, vibrant voice. --Edith Eisler Amazon.com

Everyone But Me....

.... seems to like this performance, and all for exactly the reasons that i don't like it. One reviewer praises the orchestra for being loud and rambunctious. Exactly! Another praises it essentially for being more dramatic. Exactly! though the word is spelled "melodramatic'.

To my ears, this production has the quality of a "Back to the Future" parody, as if suddenly a number of very fine singers - Ciofi, Dessay, Prina, all favorites of mine - were transported back to the 1950s and asked to sing in the "can bellow" style of the era, with shrieking and wobbling and scooping regarded as art. Likewise, the crew in the orchestra pit were given the assignment of sounding as much like the Boston Pops as possible, a feat made easier by the fact that the cornetto was still regarded as unplayable in 1950. Oh well... one person's lush orchestral timbre is another person's murky excess.

Claudio Monteverdi was a composer of infinite variety. He could write the most joyful and celebratory music of his era - in the Vespers of 1610, for instance, and in the Selva Morale e Spirituale - but he could also write refined tragedy without slipping into bathos. L'Orfeo is a work of exquisite sadness, of refined despair. This interpretation by Emmanuelle Haim gets the affect all wrong.

The interpretation of L'Orfeo that wins my single vote of acclaim is the DVD by Tragicomedia and Cocerto Palatino, conducted by Stephen Stubbs, stage director Pierre Audi. September 30, 2008

Wonderful recording

This recording is fantastic. The orchestra is loud and rambunctious, the tempi and up, and Ian Bostridge and Natalie Dessay are at their best. October 22, 2007

Best recording of Monteverdi's l'Orfeo

I have heard many renditions of this opera, and in my opinion, this is the very best recording available. I have found prior recordings to be entirely emotionless, and this is a shame, because this opera (as with any other) falls flat if the singers fail to carry conviction. This recording outdoes all the others in this respect. Bostridge gives a heartfelt performance of the title role. Dessay sings a sublime La Musica. Ciofi, Coote, and the other soloists are equally excellent, and have made this opera enjoyable to me for the first time. In short, this is a cast and a performance that would have made Monteverdi himself proud. August 31, 2007

at once ancient and modern...

Although I am quite familiar with orchestral music of the great composers, I have never really made much time for opera. Although I am only familiar with a few great operas, I really enjoy this one which is ancient-I guess the first modern opera of all time.

Montiverdi seems to touch upon something here that is at once ancient and modern. The music is urgent and passionate and the subject matter is classic as a song of love and death.

Although I am not familiar with any of the artists, I strongly reccomend "Orfeo" by Monteverdi as a piece that, given an even chance, you may like very much. May 20, 2007

The best performance of this opera

I own 3 other audio CD versions and 5 DVD versions of this great, great opera, and can tell you that this CD set is the best of the best. The ornamentation and timing are superb. A nice aside about this recording is that when you import it into iTunes to put onto your iPod (or listen via your computer) the 80 tracks come out sequentially numbered, despite the fact that there are 2 CDs. Having that many tracks (and they are appropriately labeled) makes it easy to jump to your favorite spots.
The tempi and inventive percussion use on this recording are other reasons to love it, besides the world-class singing, especially of Bostridge, Dessay, and the magnificent Alice Coote. April 10, 2007

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