Monteverdi gurea/ Nuestro Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi, published his Eighth Book of Madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi con alcuni opuscoli in genere rappresentativo, che saranno per brevi episodi fra i canti senza gesto (1638), after nineteen years of silence. The crisis of the Venetian publishing industry and the economic depression induced by the plague epidemics can explain part of this silence. During this time, the madrigal had gone from being a genre of unique features to cover numerous heterogeneous forms, whose objective continued to represent human passions through the relationship between oration (the poetic text) and harmony (the music).

Three hundred and seventy-nine years ago, looking at this heterogeneous Claudio Monteverdi, Horman Poster’s dramaturgical proposal is based on a series of simple questions: What do Monteverdi’s madrigals mean today? How do we approach so much ancient modernity? How does the polyphony of some 16th century Madrigals sound to a 21st teenager today? What position do we take to such sublime beauty after centuries of colonialism and barbarism? Was Monteverdi perhaps just another precarious artist? What was his relationship to the service of the elite of the day?

“Our Monteverdi” comes and goes between entre document, amazement, interrogation, history and performance. Whilst the theatre agonises, the lyrics spit in our face and make us witnesses of a cultural miracle.

HORMAN POSTER

Music

Su, su, su, pastorelli vezzosi (C. Monteverdi)

Non partir ritrosetta (C. Monteverdi)

Chi vuol aver felice e lieto il core (C. Monteverdi)

Lamento della ninfa (C. Monteverdi)

Dolcissimo uscignolo (C. Monteverdi)

Hor che ’l ciel e la terra (C. Monteverdi)

Vago augelletto che cantando vai (C. Monteverdi)

Ardo, avvampo, mi struggo (C. Monteverdi)