Donald Macleod explores Monteverdi’s role in the birth of opera.

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 Wednesday’s programme, Donald see Monteverdi make ground-breaking steps in the evolution of a new musical form: opera. Meanwhile, the composer's frustrations with the Gonzaga court in Mantua reach breaking point.

Pur ti miro from L’incoronazione di Poppea, SV308 Act 3
Philippe Jaroussky (Nerone), counter-tenor
Nuria Rial (Poppea), soprano
L’Arpeggiata
Christina Pluhar (director)

Orfeo - Act 5 : Final ritornello and Moresca
European Voices
Le Concert d’Astrée
Emmanuelle Haïm, director

Orfeo – Act 3 (excerpt)
Furio Zanasi (Orfeo), tenor
Sara Mingardo (Speranza), contralto
Sergio Foresti (Caronte), bass
Concerto Italiano
Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor

Lamento d’Arianna
Montserrat Figueras (Arianna), soprano
Hesperion XX
Jordi Savall, conductor

Missa da capella a sei voci “In illo tempore” – Kyrie & Gloria
Ensemble Vocal Europeen de la Chapelle Royale
Philippe Herreweghe, director

Produced by Sam Phillips Show less