Anthology Stravaganza d'Amore! The birth of opera at the Medici court Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
The sumptuous world of the ‘Intermedi’
Late sixteenth-century Florence was a theatre: first and foremost a political one, in the eyes of the dynasties that wished to use the arts to display their power. A humanist one too, as is shown by these intermedi (interludes) that sought to achieve the perfect blend between music and poetry, the ideal of a certain Renaissance. Inserted into plays imitating the ancient writers, these entertainments were presented with lavish visual and musical resources. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Bargagli’s La pellegrina, this tradition was prolonged in the burgeoning genre of opera by such composers as Peri, Caccini (Euridice, 1600) and, very soon, Monteverdi (L’Orfeo) and Gagliano (Dafne).
Rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphaël Pichon has devised a sort of imaginary intermedio by selecting the finest gems from this repertory, featuring the figures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid: Love, Love, Love!
Artists
- Conductor
- Sophie Junker
- Maïlys de Villoutreys
- Renato Dolcini
- Luciana Mancini
- Virgile Ancely
- Deborah Cachet
- Zachary Wilder
- Safir Behloul
- Davy Cornillot
- Nicolas Brooymans
- Renaud Bres
Composers
- Antonio Brunelli
- Lorenzo Allegri
- Giovanni Battista Buonamente
- Girolamo Fantini
- Cristofano Malvezzi
- Giulio Caccini
- Luca Marenzio
- Alessandro Striggio Sr
- Marco da Gagliano
- Alessandro Orologio
- Jacopo Peri
- Emilio de' Cavalieri