21.06.2024

JULIAN PRÉGARDIEN - sings the title role in a new recording of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo

In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi performed his Orfeo at the opening of the carnival in the court theatre of Duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua. For the first time in music history, real characters are animated by overwhelming human emotions: modern opera is born with this extraordinary dramatic force. After Le Retour d'Ulysse dans sa Patrie, Stephane Fuget, a notable specialist in this repertoire and its historical instrumentalisation, brings together first-class vocal and instrumental virtuosos for this new Orfeo: he entrusts the splendid and sensitive Julian Prégardien with the eponymous role to sing all the splendour of the first true hero in the history of opera. With Gwendoline Blondeel (Musica, Euridice), Marie Perbost (Ninfa, Proserpina), Eva Zaïcik (Messagiera, Speranza) and Cyril Auvity (Apollo, Eco, Pastore, Spirito), the artistic director of Les Eppopées has brought together an outstanding cast.

Claudio Monteverdi: L'Orfeo
Julian Prégardien, Gwendoline Blondeel, Marie Perbost, Eva Zaïcik, Cyril Auvity, Les Épopées, Stéphane Fuget et al.
Château de Versailles Spectacles/Note 1 CVS 103
(111 min., 10/2022, 9/2023) 2 CDs
Released on 21 June 2024 | Naxos