MUSICAL MUSINGS

By Irina Kuzminsky

An album of Monteverdi arias, canzonettas, madrigals. That already sounded promising. How could I resist?

Monteverdi was a musical genius from the 17th century who well and truly put opera on the musical map. While not strictly speaking the first opera composer (that honour went to members of the Florentine Camerata who thought they were reviving Ancient Greek drama), Monteverdi was the one to set opera on its path and ensure its subsequent blossoming into the tremendous artform which was to flourish over the succeeding centuries.

I stumbled across this album by chance –although is anything really by chance? I was browsing compilations on Idagio – this one was called ‘Softly Sung’ and promised to show just how soft and exquisite the human voice could be. Sometimes all you crave is a bit of quiet. Indeed, I have found that to be increasingly the case in a world overloaded with attention seeking noise. So when I came across ‘Softly Sung’ I was immediately drawn to give it a listen.

Well, the first track was the beginning of Arianna’s impassioned Lament from Monteverdi’s opera Arianna. It was anything but soft and gentle. More like overflowing with passion and longing and grief. The exquisite love duet “Pur ti miro” from L’incoronazione di Poppea followed and I was hooked: I just had to find the whole album, aptly named Il delirio della passione. Which I duly did.

The album opens with a very spirited and fast rendition of the Prologue from L’Orfeo. This sets the tone of what is to follow straight