Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo: Guadagnini brings the baroque masterpiece back to Milan

Associazione Liederìadi presents L’ORFEO by CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567-1643) on a libretto by Alessandro Striggio, also known to be the first opera, or rather a ‘fable in music’, as the composer himself defined it.

The artistic director, Mirko Guadagnini, italian tenor and one of the leading interpreters of Baroque vocal music of his generation, after having performed it in the most important Baroque theatres and festivals in the world, brings Monteverdi’s masterpiece to the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Milan, thus in concert form.

With high-calibre personalities such as Guadagnini (in the main role, Orfeo), Riccardo Ristori (bass, in the role of Pluto), Evangelina Mascardi (conducting the basso continuo), Claudio Andriani (conducting the strings), new voices of the Italian baroque of great talent.

The cast of soloists will be joined by the Intende Voci Chorus and the Baroque Choir and Orchestra of the Conservatorio Vivaldi di Alessandria.

“Monteverdi’s Orfeo is an extraordinary opera. Although it is the first experiment in melodrama, extraordinarily successful, it is full of enthralling instrumental parts, strictly madrigal vocal parts, solo pages in which the only apparently simple writing of the melodies is full of colours and affetti that require, in full recitar cantando style, a great expressive ability,” explains Guadagnini. “Bringing Monteverdi’s Orfeo to Milan is part of the Baroque music events with which I have been cultivating this repertoire in the city as maestro concertatore as well as performer. For me is also a way of giving back much of what I have received in my career as a tenor, thanks also to the role of Orfeo that has brought me so much luck“.