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Monteverdi Returns to Venice |
| Section: THE ARTS / MUSIC |
| Author: Tom Pniewski |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 12/1/1989 |
| Size: 2,091 Words, 12,742 Characters |
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In 1613, Claudio Monteverdi, indisputably one of the major figures in Western music history, took over the most important musical position in Europe: maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St. Mark's in Venice. In the summer of 1989, just a little over 375 years later, a choir that has been acclaimed one of the finest in the world--England's Monteverdi Choir--celebrated its own silver jubilee with a world tour and a special concert recorded live in the same basilica, to be released during the Christmas season, featuring Monteverdi's dramatic Vespers of 1610.
St. Mark's has been attracting talent from all over Europe for hundreds of years, going back to the Flemish composer Adrian Willaert, who took the choral writing of the Netherlands south with him when he was brought to Venice in 1527. There he evolved the stately, polychoral music so ideally suited to the elaborate ceremonies and resonant acoustics of St. Mark's. This Venetian choral style spread all over Europe and was only supplemented in the early 1600s by another Venetian innovation: opera. Though the earliest experiment with operatic writing came from Florence, Monteverdi and Venice created opera as we know it today--a dramatic spectacle celebrating the singer and enthroning the voice. The...
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...cifically invited audience, and then for the public. The public concert will be broadcast by the BBC in December, and audio and video recordings (Deutsche Grammophon) are scheduled for international release by the beginning of the Christmas season. At last, admirers of the Monteverdi Choir will have the long-awaited chance to hear it perform the work that was the very kernel of its existence.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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