The Very Reverend Claudio Monteverdi

Monteverdi enters the priesthood and plague comes to Venice.

Claudio Monteverdi is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the development of Western music. As a composer of both secular and sacred music, over the course of his career he worked for court, church and was one of the key figures in the development of opera. During this week of programmes, Donald Macleod tracks Monteverdi’s career across three cities, from promising child prodigy, through poverty and plague, to his final years in the priesthood, with huge artistic successes along the way.

In Friday’s programme, Donald explores a traumatic period as plague sweeps through Venice and brings the city to a standstill. We also see Monteverdi entering the priesthood, and the composer returns to opera, before a final six-month-long celebrity tour.

L'incoronazione di Poppea, SV308 – Act 2 “Oblivion soave”
Philippe Jaroussky (Arnalta), counter-tenor
L'Arpeggiata
Christina Pluhar, conductor

Selve morale e spirituale - Gloria a 7
Taverner Consort, Choir and Players
Andrew Parrott, conductor

8th book of Madrigals – Madrigali guerrieri: no 7 “Ardo avvampo, mi struggo, ardo, accorrete”; Madrigali amorosi: no.9 Lamento della ninfa (parts I - III )
Concerto Italiano
Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor

Il ritorno d’Ulisse - Act I, scene I: Torna, torna, deh torna Ulisse
Frederica von Stade (Penelope), mezzo-soprano
Janice Taylor (Eurycleia), mezzo-soprano
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Mario Bernardi, conductor

Beatus Vir
I Fagiolini
Robert Hollingworth, director

Produced by Sam Phillips