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“Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is not only one of the most beautiful operas ever written but it relates very strongly to the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. The theatre was built in 1585, a few years before L’Orfeo has first been performed in Mantova. It is the perfect opera for the perfect theatre.

But there is an important aspect: I am fascinated by the finale. Originally (in the libretto and in the classic Greek-Roman sources) Orpheus returns from the underworld and is killed by mad, ecstatic women who are angry with him. Why? Because Orpheus denounces women — he never wants to fall in love again after having lost his “perfect” Euridice twice. The insulted mad women (followers of Dionysus who perform a wild bacchanalia) tear him to pieces.

Usually this opera is performed with a revised ending composed by Monteverdi a few years after the first performance. Here, there is no bacchanalia but Apollo appears from heaven and elevates Orpheus to the skies. We end with a happy end, with a conventional finale.

I am obsessed by performing L’Orfeo with the bacchanalia. I will compose the missing music in style of Monteverdi. It will be a word premiere of the original concept 500 years after it has been written!”

Iván Fischer, Artistic Director

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Recommendations

2016, Vienna

Red Ribbon Celebration Concert - Orpheus & Eurydice

  • Martin Haselböck

  • Wiener Akademie

  • Thomas Hampson, Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Juan Diego Flórez

2018, Salzburger Festspiele

Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea

  • William Christie

  • Jan Lauwers

  • Les Arts Florissants

  • Sonya Yoncheva, Kate Lindsey, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Carlo Vistoli

2020, Salzburger Festspiele

Canto Lirico - Sonya Yoncheva

  • Leonardo García Alarcón

  • Cappella Mediterranea

  • Sonya Yoncheva
(1567-1643)

Claudio Monteverdi

2018, Theater im Delphi

Stars of tomorrow - episode 29

  • Elias Grandy

  • Junge Sinfonie Berlin

  • Jakub Józef Orliński, Tuuli Takala

  • 4 Times Baroque

2016, Salzburg Festival

Missa Salisburgensis - Works by Monteverdi and Biber

  • Václav Luks

  • Collegium 1704

  • Collegium Vocale 1704

1979, Opernhaus Zürich

Monteverdi, The Return of Ulisses

  • Nikolaus Harnoncourt

  • Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

  • Monteverdi-Ensemble der Oper Zürich

  • Werner Hollweg, Trudeliese Schmidt, Francisco Araiza

2014, Wiener Stephansdom

Selva Morale e Spirituale - Vienna Bach Consort at St. Stephen's Cathedral

  • Rubén Dubrovsky

  • Bach Consort Wien

  • Soetkin Elbers, Theresa Dlouhy, Jakob Huppmann, Markus Forster

2018, BBC Proms

Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra

  • Iván Fischer

  • City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

  • József Lendvai Sr, József Lendvai Jr

2008, St. Denis

Rolando Villazón sings Monteverdi

  • Emmanuelle Haïm

  • Le Concert d'Astrée

  • Patrizia Ciofi, Topi Lehtipuu, Rolando Villazón

1978, Opernhaus Zürich

Monteverdi, L'Orfeo

  • Nikolaus Harnoncourt

  • Philippe Huttenlocher, Dietlinde Turban, Roland Hermann

1986

Monteverdi, Marienvesper

  • Nikolaus Harnoncourt

  • Concentus Musicus Wien

  • Margaret Marshall, Felicity Palmer, Philip Langridge, Kurt Equiluz

  • Tölzer Sängerknaben