Les Arts Florissants reviews
Gesualdo: Madrigali, Books 3 & 4
Les Arts Florissants/Paul Agnew (Harmonia Mundi)
Si vous vouliez un jour... Airs by Camus, Charpentier, M Lambert & Moulinié
Emmanuelle de Negri, Anna Reinhold, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Cyril Auvity, Lisandro Abadie;
Les Arts Florissants/William Christie (Harmonia Mundi)
Gesualdo: Madrigali
Les Arts Florissants/Paul Agnew (Harmonia Mundi)
Paul Agnew directs Monteverdi's L’Orfeo
British tenor Paul Agnew tackles an operatic triathlon here, as soloist (in the roles of Eco and Apollo), and as both musical and stage director of this new production of L’Orfeo filmed at the Théâtre de Caen. His mise en scène paints a series of pastoral tableaux with apt simplicity – a welcome change from the anachronisms directors often impose on early opera (though the singers’ actions would have benefitted from a little more direction).
A bold new take on Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea
‘Cognitive dissonance reigns as gorgeous music engulfs a drama about moral implosion’