Contemplative, dramatic, spirited, lively – and all these facets united by absolute beauty and perfection: This describes the Baroque Evening in Salzburg’s Haus für Mozart. Sonya Yoncheva dedicated her recital to 17th- and 18th-Century music, together with Argentinian conductor Leonardo García Alarcón and his Cappella Mediterranea, all renowned specialists in baroque music. Vocal and instrumental music by Monteverdi, Purcell, Cavalli, Dowland and many others enchants the public – and a surprise, when Sonya Yoncheva proves with an encore how much Folk & Pop and Baroque music have in common… “Bulgarian Sonya Yoncheva currently has one of the most sensual soprano voices in the world of opera. Yoncheva stirs and soothes, with delicately sparkling melodic jewels of Stradella, Monteverdi, Cavalli and Caldara, but also with Spanish, Gibbons, Dowland and Purcell” Die Welt
Donizetti: Messa da Requiem
From the Basilique de Saint Denis, the burial place of the French Kings since centuries and at the same time one of the first gothic churches in the world, comes the first ever audiovisual recording of a long lost masterpiece of Italian sacred music, full of romance and belcanto: Gaetano Donizetti’s luminous Messa da Requiem. The highly virtuosic and lyrical score, expressing the Christian vision of the passage from death to eternal life, combines the imposing polyphony of a choir with the operatic brilliance of soloist arias. The Argentine conductor Leonardo García Alarcón conducts his Orchestre Millenium, an orchestra dedicated to bring ancient music to a new generation, with “precise gestures and rich contrast” while the Choeur de Chambre de Namur impresses with “clarity and power” (Forum Opera).
El Prometeo
After its premier in 1669, Antonio Draghi’s opera El Prometeo has never been performed again – until Leonardo García Alarcón used the only remaining handwritten copy of the score to revive it in Dijon. Alarcón, who is the Opéra de Dijon’s artist in residence together with his orchestra Cappella Mediterranea, has made it his speciality to bring forgotten masterpieces to light, He thus descovered a missing link in the history of opera between the Venetian opera tradition and the one to rule Vienna in the following centuries.
Il palazzo incantato
Il palazzo incantato (The Enchanted Palace) by Luigi Rossi (1597-1653) has not been performed since its premiere in 1642. In Dijon, Leonardo García Alarcón and Fabrice Murgia bring back to life this unique work with singers, dancers and comedians. The libretto was written by Giulio Rospigliosi, who would later become Pope Clement IX. It is an adaptation of Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, a chivalric epic considered one of the great masterpieces of Italian literature and set to music by numerous other composers like Handel and Vivaldi as well. “A remarkable work of intelligence, and powerfully poetic” (Le Monde).
The Deadly Sins – Angels and Demons in the works of Claudio Monteverdi
In order to honor the anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s (1567- 1643) the ensemble Cappella Mediterranea and their founder Leonardo García Alarcón were given the special permission, to perform in an outstanding venue, the Chiesetta del Doge at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice for an unique musical project: The first performance of Monteverdi’s music in more than 300 years at the Doges chapel, the heart of the old Venetian republic, where Monteverdi was the official court composer. Based on the theme of “Angels and Demons” the ensemble perform extracts from Monteverdi’s opera and madrigal compositions. The half-scenic production is staged by Olivier Lexa, founder and artistic director of the Venetian Centre for Baroque Music. The works, illustrate the contrasts of sins and virtues which are beautifully mirrored in Jacopo Guarana’s and Agostino Colonna’s frescos in the Chiesetta del Doge.