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Monteverdi - The Musician for Anytime and No Time, the First Revolutionary Genius
Monteverdi in Mantua: the Genius of the Vespers
Dir.: Andy King-Dabbs | 60 minutes

Other Screenings

Musical revolutions are supposedly easier to start and easier to accept, compared to political, scientific or religious revolutions. The revolutionary music of Monteverdi and his generation, however, proves that music’s impact on the world can be just as significant.

Lecture by: Prof. Michael Melzer

Concert performed by: Ye'ela Avital soprano, Adaya Peled soprano, Yoav Weiss baritone, Michael Melzer, Yael Melzer recorders, Yizhar Karshon harpsichord

In the program: Claudio Monteverdi Scherzi musicali ("musical jokes") for three singers and three musicians, Song for soprano and basso continuo; Salomone Rossi trio sonatas; Dario Castello sonata for recorder and basso continuo

UK 2014 | 60 minutes | English | Hebrew subtitles

Monteverdi in Mantua tells the story of a Renaissance duke and the composer who worked for him and how their volatile relationship would create one of the most revolutionary and beautiful collections of music ever published: the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610. The film, a prestigious BBC production, is presented by Shakespearean actor and former St. Paul’s Cathedral chorister Simon Russell Beale, whose enthusiasm for choral music is matched by his gift for storytelling. Together with conductor Harry Christophers and his virtuoso choir “The Sixteen”, Simon explores Claudio Monteverdi’s early career in Mantua, where he wrote the Vespers under the slave-like regime of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, a man addicted to sex, luxury and art. Using the remarkable legacy of 127 surviving letters, Monteverdi is revealed as the first of a new breed of dramatic composer: straddling the worlds of the secular and sacred, whose bold experiments would change the way music sounds forever.

Presented by Simon Russell Beale