This is not opera, but it
sure is operatic. This is another selection from the 1610 Vespers,
one of the "concertos" that are sung in between the choral
psalms. I believe the Vespers are to Monteverdi;s operas are what Verdi’s Requeim
is to his operas. This is also another selection from Christina Pluhar's
energetic recording of the Vespers with L'arpeggiata and a host of early music
singers. No big names in this excerpt, but they do a great job.
Psalm 122: Laetatus Sum (a sei voci)
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| L'Arpeggiata |
In addition to inventing opera, Claudio Monteverdi wrote a bunch of madrigals and a whole lot of sacred music. While initially, there was a stylistic difference, his sacred and secular works started to sound more and more alike. This is an excerpt from Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine, also known as his Vespers of 1610 (which I believe is when the set was first published.) Vespers is an evening worship service that consists mainly of psalms. Monteverdi's choral settings are still in a somewhat older style, with lots of polyphony, and in between are "concerti" or settings for one or more voices, that are much more operatic. Although he does let the operatic style sneak into the choral bits, too.
I
"discovered" the performance of Monteverdi's Zefiro torna by Nuria Rial, Philippe Jaroussky, and L’Arpeggiata after one of my readers (Juha)
mentioned that they had recorded Pur ti miro from Poppea.
There are actually are three different performances of Pur ti
miro by L’Arpeggiata on YouTube:
In 2000, Christina
Pluhar formed the loose-knit early music group L'Arpeggiata. Her performances
may annoy the purists. In addition to early music performance practices, her group
incorporates elements of jazz and world music. One thing I especially like
is her addition of drumming to early dance music, which is more authentic
than we might think. You might consider L’Arpeggiata’s style as "Renaissance/Crossover."
