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Claudio Monteverdi, L'Orfeo

I: Toccata

Prologue: Ritornello. "Dal mio Permesso amato"

I: "In questo lieto e fortunato giorno"

I: "Vieni, Imeneo"

I: "Muse honor di Parnasso"

I: "Lasciate i monti"

I: "Ma tu gentil cantor"

I: "Rosa del ciel"

I: "Io non diro qual sia"

I: "Lasciate i monti"

I: "Vieni, Imeneo"

I: "Ma s'il nostro gioir dal cielo deriva"

I: "Ecco Orfeo cui pur dianzi"

II: Sinfonia

II: "Mira ch'a se n'alletta"

II: "In questo prato adorno"

II: "Vi ricorda o boschi ombrosi"

II: "Mira deh mira Orfeo"

II: "In un fiorito prato"

II: "Tu se' morta, mia vita, ed io respiro"

II: "Ahi caso acerbo"

II: "Mira deh mira Orfeo"

II: Sinfonia

II: "Chi ne consola, ahi lassi?"

III: Sinfonia

III: "Scorto da te, mio Nume"

III: "Ecco l'altra palude"

III: "O tu ch'innanzi mort'a questi rive"

III: Sinfonia

III: "Possente spirto"

III: Ritornello (Violino I e II)

III: "Non viv'io no, che poi di vita è priva"

III: Ritornello (Cornetto I e II)

III: "A lei volt'ho il camin per l'aer cieco"

III: "Orfeo son io "

III: "Sol Tu nobile Deo puoi darmi aita"

III: "Ben mi lusinga alquanto"

III: "Ahi sventurato a mante, sperar dunque non lice"

III: Sinfonia. "Ei dorme"

III: Sinfonia/Coro di Spiriti Infernali

IV: "Signor quel infelice"

IV: "Benchè severo e immutabil fato"

IV: "O degli habitato de l'ombre eterno"

IV: "Quali grazie tirendo"

IV: "Tue soavi parole d'Amor l'antica piaga..."

IV: "Pietade oggi et Amor Trionfan"

IV: "Qual onor di te sia degno"

IV: "Ma mentre io canto"

IV: "O dolcissimi lumi io pur vi veggio"

IV: "Ahi vista troppo dolce e troppo amara"

IV: "Dove te'n vai mia vita"

IV: Sinfonia/"E la virtute un raggio"

V: Ritornello

V: "Questi i campi di Tracia"

V: "Ma tu anima mia se mai ritorna"

V: "Tu bella fusti e saggia"

V: "Hor l'altra Donne son superbe e perfide"

V: Sinfonia/"Perch'a lo sdegno"

V: "Padre cortese al maggior uopo arrivi"

V: "Troppo gioisti di tua lieta ventura"

V: "Si non vedro più mai..."

V: "Saliam d'al Cielo"

V: Ritornello/"Vanne, Orfeo, felice a piento"

V: Moresca

Monteverdi's La Favola d'Orfeo

A movie adaptation by Claude Goretta

Opera
Subscribers

Cast

Alberto Acciarito — Assistant director

Alessandro Striggio — Scenography

Jacques Bufnoir — Stage design

Gabriella Pescucci — Costumes designer

Gino Quilico — Orpheus

Audrey Michael — Eurydice

Carolyn Watkinson — The messenger

Program notes

Claude Goretta brings to life the age-old tale of Orpheus and Eurydice in a fresh adaptation of Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

Monteverdi’s fabled opera Orfeo was long described as the first opera to have been written. Although modern scholarship has proven this to be untrue, the work remains one of the pillars of western music history, a musical creation which laid the foundations for much of what was to come. As musicologist Jack Westrup explains, Orfeo marked a major milestone not because it broke new ground, but because imagination had taken precedence over theory. While Monteverdi may not have been a revolutionary, his music represents the culmination of centuries of musical evolution, and shows him as the clear master of both polyphony and monody.

Argument:

The work opens on shepherds and nymphs singing about the love of Orpheus and Eurydice. Suddenly, a Messenger arrives, bringing sad news of the death of Eurydice, bitten by a snake when she was picking flowers. Stricken with grief, her fiancé Orpheus swears to find her in the depths of hell and bring her back with him. To reward Orpheus’ courage, Pluto decides to let Eurydice go her love, on one condition: that he does not look at her until they have successfully arrived back in the realm of the living. At the last moment, Orpheus succumbs to temptation, losing his love forever, but the god Apollo invites the young hero to join him in the heavens, where he will be able to contemplate Eurydice for eternity.

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